2023-09-15 00:22:49
17 and 14 years in prison. These are the sentences to which two supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro were sentenced on Thursday, who participated in the riots in Brasilia which shook Brazilian democracy in January. A sentence that is intended to be exemplary. A large majority among the 11 magistrates of the Supreme Court also found Aecio Lucio Costa Pereira, 51, and Thiago Mathar, 43, guilty of the five charges against them.
A week after the inauguration of left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, thousands of people refusing to accept his election against Jair Bolsonaro stormed on January 8 on the emblematic Three Powers Square in Brasilia, the heart of democracy Brazilian. Protesters invaded the presidential palace, Parliament and the Supreme Court, in scenes reminiscent of the assault on the Capitol in Washington by supporters of Donald Trump on January 6, 2021.
A fine of almost six million euros
Aecio Lucio Costa Pereira, originally from the state of Sao Paulo, was found guilty of attempted coup d’état, criminal association and deterioration of classified public heritage. He will also have to pay an individual fine, and contribute to compensation “for moral harm and collective material damage” of 30 million reals (approximately 5.8 million euros), with the other people convicted for these riots. He shared a video on social media in which he filmed himself in the Senate chamber, celebrating the invasion and wearing a t-shirt flanked by the words “Military intervention”.
Video. The attack on Brasilia “is the translation of a drift in Brazil over the last fifteen years”
“The objective was, by using violence, to put Brasilia under siege and to spread throughout the country the practice of criminal acts that undermine the rule of law,” said Cristiano Zanin, a judges who voted on Thursday. Judge Rapporteur Alexandre de Moraes, who first proposed the 17-year prison sentence, said the protesters wanted to “convince the army to join a coup.”
The second convict, Thiago Mathar, was seen in the presidential palace during the riots. According to his defense, he only entered there to take shelter during clashes between the police and the rioters on the Place des Trois powers. This did not prevent the majority of judges from sentencing him to 14 years of imprisonment. Brazilian prosecutors have initiated proceedings against 232 people in total.
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