"Bolsonaro should be punished, but without abuse," says Pedro Serrano.

247- Specialist in Administrative Law, the jurist Pedro Serrano stated this Wednesday (5) that Jair Bolsonaro (PL) must pay for his crimes, but should not be arrested at this time. According to Serrano, imprisonment without the right to defense “is medieval”.

“There’s no need to arrest them. Pretrial detention is something to be used as a last resort. We have already been sanctioned as a country for having 40% of our population imprisoned due to pretrial detention, therefore without the right to a defense. This is something medieval, something irrational, that has no basis. In Brazil, we live gravitating between this story of impunity and abuse,” he justified.  

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The jurist argues that imprisonment, if necessary, should be carried out according to legal procedures to avoid the error of abuse. "We have to punish Bolsonaro through due legal process, after proving authorship and materiality for a final decision of guilt, and only then put him in jail. Because then history will tell us that there was no abuse, that there was no persecution, and that we followed the method and script of human rights and democracy," he pointed out. 

Serrano also said that he is concerned about the situation of Bolsonaro supporters imprisoned in Brasília for their involvement in the terrorist attacks of January 8th. 

“It’s obvious that it was correct to arrest them because there was a risk of them carrying out the coup attempt, but that moment has passed. Pretrial detention should be maintained for the time necessary to safeguard the interest it aims to protect (in this case, a new coup attempt). Therefore, there is a tendency for us to be abusing our power by keeping those people who are imprisoned,” he concluded.