Number of Jan. 8 rioters convicted by top court rise to 12
The full bench of Brazil’s Supreme Court convicted six more defendants by majority vote for their involvement in the pro-coup riots staged on January 8, when the headquarters of the three branches of power in Brasília were invaded and ransacked. This brings the number of people convicted in connection with the episode to 12.
All had been charged with the crimes of armed criminal association, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état, aggravated damage to federal property, and deterioration of listed property. The online trial ended on Tuesday (Oct. 17).
The convicted individuals were Reginaldo Carlos Begiato Garcia, Claudio Augusto Felippe, Edineia Paes da Silva Dos Santos, and Jorge Ferreira, all from São Paulo, Jaqueline Freitas Gimenez, from Minas Gerais, and Marcelo Lopes do Carmo, from Goiás.
Ultimately, the opinion of the rapporteur, Justice Alexandre de Mores, prevailed. He voted to sentence each of them to 17 years in prison, with the exception of Jorge Ferreira. He received a sentence of 14 years.
Justices Cármen Lúcia, Gilmar Mendes, Dias Toffoli, and Luiz Fux sided with Moraes. Justices Cristiano Zanin and Edson Fachin dissented in part, handing more lenient sentences, while Justices Luís Roberto Barroso, André Mendonça, and Nunes Marques disagreed to a greater extent, acquitting the defendants of some of the charges.
The differences arose as a result of the individual assessment of the defendants’ conduct. Most of the charged were arrested inside the Planalto presidential palace. Only Reginaldo Garcia was arrested on the Senate floor.
In all, the Prosecutor-General’s Office had filed some 1,400 complaints on January 8. The vast majority concern the pro-Bolsonaro demonstrators arrested outside the Army headquarters in Brasília.
In this case, charges were more lenient, including criminal association and incitement to animosity by the Armed Forces against the established powers, and Justice Moraes authorized the Federal Prosecution Service to close the case.
Another 250 complaints, on more serious crimes, concern people arrested in flagrante delicto inside or around the Planalto presidential palace, the National Congress building, and the Supreme Court.
