Silvio Almeida's bureaucratic decision threatens Adélio Bispo's life.

The situation of Adélio Bispo de Oliveira in the Campo Grande federal prison (maximum security) is becoming increasingly unclear, and the request from his sister's lawyers to verify the conditions of his incarceration has not been granted by the Minister of Human Rights, Sílvio Almeida.

This Friday (03/03), Maria das Graças Souza Oliveira, Adélio's sister, was at the Federal Public Defender's Office in Montes Claros for a virtual visit, scheduled more than a month ago. But the visit did not take place because the Penitentiary Department (Depen), of the Ministry of Justice, did not send the access code for the videoconference to the Public Defender's Office.

With five minutes remaining in the allotted time for the visit, the Department of Penitentiary Administration (Depen) sent the code, but informed her that they would have to reschedule, as there was no longer time for contact between Maria das Graças and Adélio. As a result, Maria das Graças had to return home without speaking to her brother, and now she doesn't know when another visit will be scheduled.

This is yet another absurdity among the many surrounding the case of Adélio Bispo de Oliveira, who is serving a security measure in prison for confessing to stabbing Bolsonaro. The first absurdity occurred when lawyer Zanone Júnior, who approached him to take on his defense on September 7, 2018, requested measures that even a layperson understands to be against the client's best interests.

Zanone requested that the case be judged under the National Security Law (in effect at the time) and, therefore, remain in Federal Court (and not State Court, where the case would go if it were classified as attempted homicide). Furthermore, he requested his transfer to a federal prison in another state (far from his family) and filed an insanity plea. The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office in Juiz de Fora agreed, and the head of the 3rd Federal Court in the municipality, Bruno Savino, accepted.

In 2019, after Zanone himself presented a report that considered Adélio to have a mental disorder, a medical board examined him and said it was a case of "paranoid personality." But prison officers reported that he was not taking any medication there. 

In the same year, 2019, in a handwritten letter to the Federal Public Defender's Office, Adélio asked for help. He wanted the removal of his lawyer, whom he did not trust, and for the case to be taken over by a federal public defender. By this time, the case had already been judged, and Adélio was sentenced to serve a security measure until he was re-evaluated by doctors and deemed fit to return to society.

In 2020, even though he was not criminally responsible, he was punished for indiscipline for refusing to submit to a search before sunbathing, during which he would have to undress and squat. He spent fifteen days in solitary confinement, but the Public Defender's Office reacted and filed a writ of habeas corpus. "If he is not criminally responsible, he cannot be punished for not complying with prison rules," denounced a public defender.

A few months later, the Federal Court in Campo Grande agreed with the Public Defender's Office, which filed another motion: the transfer of Adélio to a psychiatric hospital. The Federal Court in Campo Grande agreed, but the judge of the 3rd Federal Court in Juiz de Fora objected. 

A jurisdictional conflict arose, which ended up in the Supreme Federal Court. By lottery, the case went to Justice Kássio Nunes (appointed by Bolsonaro), who provisionally decided that Adélio, although mentally ill, could remain in the federal prison in Campo Grande.

In July of last year, Adélio was evaluated again by a psychiatric board. The three doctors said that he could not return to social life, but added that his transfer to a hospital was necessary, since his health condition tended to worsen. One of the doctors even raised the possibility of him developing schizophrenia.

Adélio is no longer defended by Zanone Júnior, but he remains involved in the case as a curator appointed by Judge Bruno Savino of Juiz de Fora. At the end of last year, Adélio's sister, who helped raise him, went to court to assume his guardianship, definitively removing Zanone from the case.

But the State Court in Montes Claros deemed itself incompetent to hear the case and sent it to Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, where no decision was made, despite the urgency.

At the same time, after the psychiatric report from July of last year, the Public Defender's Office in Campo Grande requested that the Federal Court heed the doctors' recommendation and transfer Adélio to a psychiatric hospital. The request was made in early February and, despite the urgency, has not yet been considered.

This week, 247 contacted Judge Luiz Augusto Iamassaki Fiorentini, who received the transfer request. The court clerk said the process is confidential and referred us to the press office of the Regional Court of the 3rd Region, which responded formally that it would provide a response, but so far nothing.

A formal response was also given by the press office of the Ministry of Human Rights when contacted by the lawyers of Adélio's sister, Edna Teixeira and Alfredo Marques. Given the many absurdities in the case, Edna and Alfredo believe that the case is not only legal but also political, hence the need for action from the Ministry of Human Rights, in their view.

An official letter was sent to the department recreated during Lula's government. "(The letter) went directly to Minister Sílvio Almeida's office. I went there personally to see him. And his communications advisor, who works there, told me: 'I'll pass it on to him.' From what I saw, he didn't stop to read it. Of course, he looked at it. He opened it and it said there (that it referred to Adélio) and said: 'forward it to the Ombudsman's Office.' I suppose that's how it was done. Because she (the advisor) told me: he will receive you. If there isn't a meeting and you've already traveled (Edna lives in Fortaleza), we'll have a virtual meeting, you, the lawyer, and the ombudsman (in addition to the minister). But that meeting didn't happen," she recounted.

"I spent seventeen days in Brasília. I called them there, and they treated me very well. But it's that thing: they receive you well, but they don't answer. What did they do? They forwarded it to the State Penitentiary System Agency (Mato Grosso do Sul). That's what they did (after the Ombudsman's analysis). For Alfredo Marques, 'they exposed Adélio even more. To his assailant, they warned that we are taking action. He (Sílvio Almeida) should have taken action to arrive there by surprise: 'I want to verify Adélio's incarceration conditions'."

With her experience, including as a former forum director, Edna Teixeira says the correct path was different. 

"How many times does the OAB (Brazilian Bar Association) not do this? The Ministry has power. We are in Lula's government. And we keep thinking: 'Are they afraid to go there and accuse the PT (Workers' Party) of having an interest because the PT ordered him (Adélio) to do this (which has already been dismissed by the Federal Police investigation, during an investigation under the Bolsonaro government)? I understand that the Ministry of Human Rights has to act independently of what the opposition will do. What the opposition will say, we can counter and prove that it has no basis. We are able to prove that our interest is different," says Edna.

Alfredo, who has a history of defending against human rights violations, was outraged by what he considers the Ministry of Human Rights' inaction. 

"We denounced to the Ministry of Human Rights an absurdity, a crime, committed against a black man, against a poor man, against someone from the periphery, a semi-illiterate person, a delusional person, an insane person, confined for four years and almost six months, imprisoned in a maximum security cell. A person who is mentally ill, the Justice system says he is mentally ill, and it has been confirmed for almost four and a half years, is confined without the right to medication, locked in a cell alone, part of this prison period he spent without speaking to anyone, it's all documented. And I ask: what kind of treatment is this given to an insane person? Locked in a cell, without speaking to anyone, and without medication," he stated.

And he added: "And the Ministry of Human Rights acts in a case like this by issuing perfunctory orders? What is that? We asked and urged Minister Sílvio Almeida to take responsibility and call for a series of actions within the ministry's sphere of action that are perfectly reasonable for a state that wants to be democratic."

Alfredo is outraged by what he considers "absurd". "For a crime of attempted homicide, which would be the classification if Adélio were not insane, there is no sentence that involves a person being locked in solitary confinement for four and a half years. If he wasn't crazy, he will become crazy, with the contribution of the judge who signs off on such madness. (...) We are pointing the finger. It is the Brazilian State committing a crime against a citizen. And a citizen who has an anomaly, an anomaly that needs treatment, medication, and monitoring. And what the Bolsonaro government did is being followed by Lula's government. Doing what? Pretending the person doesn't exist. I know that judgment is made from a legal point of view, but it is judged much more from a political point of view. And this (error) cannot happen now. Covering up or ignoring the acts of the previous (government) is not justifiable. We ask that the Minister of Human Rights officially notify the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, the Attorney General's Office, the Prosecutor General's Office, the Brazilian Psychiatric Association, and the Brazilian Bar Association." "Brazil, ABI, the press in general, everyone, to follow the factual situation of Adélio in light of his imprisonment in Campo Grande," Alfredo stated. "And we saw nothing happen," he concluded. 

Alfredo also pointed out that "the Brazilian state cannot lock someone in jail and throw away the jail key. How long does the Brazilian state need to be satisfied with the persecution of an enemy? There is no other way to put it."

After failing to make the virtual visit to her brother, Maria das Graças, known as Lia in the family, returned to her brick house on the outskirts of Montes Claros. She said that her other siblings were anxious for news of Adélio, whom they call Tuco, but she had nothing to say. Now she doesn't know when she will be able to speak to him again. "I don't believe anything they said about him in that case in Juiz de Fora. He will only open up if he can talk to someone in the family. And what we want is for him to be okay. When are they going to let him out of there? Only when he dies?" she asked. "He has a family, and I'm not going to give up."