For teachers interviewed by BBC News Brasil, the PF report gathered consistent evidence of a coup attempt.
The indictment of former President Jair Bolsonaro and 36 other people by the Federal Police (PF), suspected of plotting a coup, presents robust charges and will likely generate criminal charges against the suspects, according to crime experts interviewed from BBC News Brazil.
The investigation’s final report, 884 pages long, gathers evidence of how the group intended to prevent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from taking office as president in January 2023 to keep Bolsonaro in power and call new elections.
According to the PF, the plan would also entail the possibility of killing Lula, his vice-president elect, Geraldo Alckmin, and the minister of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) Alexandre de Moraes, then president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). .
The PF also states that the attack was not carried out due to the lack of support from the then commanders of the Army (General Freire Gomes) and the Air Force (Brigadier Lieutenant Baptista Júnior), contrary to the approval received from the Navy . commander, Admiral Almir Garnier, to the coup plot.
The PF report was sent this Tuesday (26/11) to the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) by Moraes, rapporteur of the STF investigations.
Now the Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, will evaluate whether there is sufficient evidence to file criminal charges against the suspects at the Supreme Court or whether further investigations are necessary.
In the event of a complaint, the STF will decide whether to authorize the initiation of proceedings which could lead to criminal convictions and possible arrests.
For the criminals Mauricio Dieter, professor at the University of São Paulo (USP), and Celso Vilardi, professor at the Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), it is “very likely” that the suspects will be reported, including Bolsonaro.
“I would say that an indictment is extremely likely, because, in the legal world we live in, you rarely see charges with such clear outlines as this one,” Dieter told the reporter.
The professor lists elements that give density to the investigation, such as the analysis of the movements of the suspects through cell phone tracking; the information brought by the plea agreement of Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s aide-de-camp at the time; the testimonies of Army and Air Force commanders implicating Bolsonaro; and documents predicting the stages of the alleged coup.
The fact that Moraes forwarded the report to the PGR according to Dieter shows that the minister did not see any illegality in the PF investigation.
“This is a very careful investigation, with georeferencing [dos celulares]with plea bargaining, with robust testimonies, with narrative coherence, with derecorded audio, with well-defined timescales, with division of tasks, with recovered documents, with transfer of values”, lists the USP professor.
“There is concrete evidence, even against Bolsonaro. If there are no protests, we will say: ‘well, this is the most judicious Public Prosecutor in the world and it is not the Brazilian Public Prosecutor’,” he underlined.
Celso Vilardi, of FGV, underlines that to file a criminal complaint, complete proof of criminal activity is not necessary, but the existence of sufficient evidence of authorship of the crime.
It is only in the criminal trial, which begins after the eventual receipt of a complaint, that evidence is produced, with room for the defense to refute the charges.
Therefore, it also assesses that there is sufficient evidence for the PGR to report the suspects, including Bolsonaro.
“It is very likely that the prosecutor will accept the federal police report, if not in its entirety, but in most of it,” Vilardi told BBC News Brasil.
Although the PF did not identify a recording or a message from Bolsonaro that specifically spoke about the coup plan, the professor considers other elements important, such as the statements of the commanders of the Army and Air Force, which underlined the participation of the then president.
“I don’t think it’s possible to talk about it [de golpe de Estado]. From everything I’ve seen so far, I think there is strong evidence, yes, of a coup attempt,” he reinforces.
BBC News Brasil sought Bolsonaro’s defense and asked the former president for a position, but so far no response has been sent.
Includes PF accusations against Bolsonaro
Details of the PF investigation became public on Tuesday (26/11), after Moraes overturned the confidentiality of the final report.
In the document, the police name Bolsonaro as the leader of the criminal organization that planned a coup to keep him in power after his defeat in the 2022 elections.
“The evidence obtained during the investigations demonstrates unequivocally that the then President of the Republic, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, planned, acted and had direct and effective control over the executive acts carried out by the criminal organization that aimed to carry out a coup d’état and ‘abolition of the democratic rule of law,’ the report reads.
Elsewhere in the document, the PF describes Bolsonaro’s alleged leadership role in the organization.
“The evidentiary framework gathered indicates that the group under investigation, led by Jair Messias Bolsonaro, President of the Republic at the time, created, developed and disseminated the false narrative of the existence of vulnerabilities and fraud in the country’s electronic voting system since 2019, with the aim of cementing the false reality of electoral fraud among the population,” reads another excerpt from the report.
According to the PF, this narrative had two objectives.
“First, it should not be interpreted as a possible casuistic act in the event of an electoral defeat and, secondly, and more relevant, it should be used as a basis for the acts that occurred after the defeat of the then candidate Jair Bolsonaro in the elections of 2022”, adds the document. .
The document also states that Bolsonaro was aware of the plan elaborated by the allies with the aim of assassinating President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin (PSB). The plan, according to the PF, was called “Operação Punhal Verde e Amarelo”. Police launched an operation in the case last week.
“The evidence collected, such as the entry and exit registers of visitors to the Palácio do Alvorada, the content of the dialogues between interlocutors in its nearby nucleus, the analysis of the ERBs (cell phone antennas), the dates and places of the meetings, indicate that Jair Bolsonaro had full knowledge of the operational planning (Punhal Verde and Amarelo), as well as the clandestine actions carried out under the code name Copa 2022,” the report reads.
Source: Terra
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