On Thursday (14/09), the Supreme Federal Court (STF) sentenced to 17 years in prison the first defendant tried in the context of the 8 January attacks. Aécio Lúcio Costa Pereira, 51, was condemned by the court for the crimes of criminal association, coup d’état, abolition of the democratic rule of law, qualified damage to the Union’s property and deterioration of listed property. Later, two other individuals were also condemned, both to at least 14 years, following the trend of harsh sentences.
17 Years and Fine
The ministers defined that 15 years and 6 months must be served in a closed regime and 1 year and 6 months in an open regime. A fine of R$30 million was also imposed for collective moral damages to be paid jointly to all those convicted.
Coup D’État
According to the ministers’ vote, the incident was in fact a coup d’état in course, which however, did not work. The criminal type (coup) is an attempted deposition through violence. For Minister Luis Roberto Barroso, if the action had been successful, the ministers would not be there, in the court judging the case, because a new legal order would have been established. He added that Brazilian democracy “took a real risk on January 8th” and that its articulations “took place underground, in details that we will learn later”.
Excessive Punishment
Experts, such as Criminal Law Professor at Rio de Janeiro State University (Uerj) Davi Tangerino, assessed that there was excessive punishment for the first defendants of the 8/1 coup acts. For Tangerino, the main point is not exactly the number of years in prison, which is quite high. But how this total was achieved. The professor says that this number is the result of an accumulation of criminal types that, for him, are undue. The most glaring example would be to condemn these people for ‘impeding, through violence, constitutional powers’ and ‘attempting to overthrow a legitimately constituted government’, since one crime is contained in the other.
Analysis:
Brazil’s history is plain of institutional ruptures and attempts to end constitutional legality, many connected to alliances between sectors of the Armed Forces and from powerful groups of civilians. A severe response to the incident could help reinforce democratic stability for the next decades. However, leaving without any punishment some sectors, particularly of those that operated through their institutions, could render this trial of common citizens that invaded the Three Powers Plaza futile, opening space for future and more effective actions.
