With Rosa Weber, the Supreme Court has 8 votes to indict 200 for coup attempt.

Brazil Agency - Brazilian Supreme Court Chief Justice Rosa Weber cast the eighth vote to indict another 200 individuals in the investigation into the coup attempts of January 8, when the headquarters of the Three Branches of Government were invaded and extensively vandalized by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Rosa Weber fully endorsed the vote of the rapporteur for the investigations into the case at the Supreme Court, Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Justices Gilmar Mendes, Luís Roberto Barroso, Edson Fachin, Cármen Lúcia, Luiz Fux, and Dias Toffoli also concurred. Only the votes of André Mendonça and Nunes Marques remain.

Whether or not to accept these 200 complaints is being judged in a virtual plenary session, in which votes are deposited electronically, without face-to-face deliberation. The session began on Tuesday (25) and continues until 23:59 pm next Tuesday (2).

With a majority formed, after the trial concludes, the accused will face criminal charges and become defendants in the case. At this stage, Moraes must analyze whether to maintain the pretrial detention of the accused who remain in custody.

Steps

A first batch of 100 indictments was accepted last week by a vote of 8 to 2. On that occasion, only Mendonça and Marques dissented from the others. They were the only ones who argued that the indictments should be judged by the first instance of the Federal Court.

In his vote, Marques also downplayed the responsibility of people arrested at the encampment in front of the Army Headquarters in Brasília. The minister argued that not all of them had committed crimes, and that a more in-depth analysis of each person's conduct would be necessary before charges against them could be accepted.

On the other hand, in this week's vote, already followed by the majority of the Supreme Court, Moraes emphasized that those involved in the acts of January 8th attempted to "destroy the democratic regime and its institutions, preaching violence, advocating tyranny, arbitrariness, violence, and the breakdown of republican principles."

A new batch of 250 complaints is scheduled to be judged next week, in a virtual session scheduled to begin at midnight next Wednesday (3).

Volume of processes

In total, the Attorney General's Office (PGR) filed 1.390 formal charges with the Supreme Court, all against individuals who directly participated in acts of vandalism or incited violence. To date, no one has been charged with financing or orchestrating the coup attempts.

The situation is unprecedented for the Supreme Court, which had never before dealt with so many simultaneous accusations in the same case. Virtual sessions were the method found by Moraes and the president of the Supreme Court, Rosa Weber, to handle such a large volume of people being prosecuted. However, the measure has been criticized by lawyers.

The expectation is that all complaints will be reviewed by June. Following that, the criminal proceedings should begin, with new procedural steps and the possible production of new evidence and collection of new testimonies, including at the request of the defense. There is no set date for the final judgment.