17 and 14 years in prison. These are the sentences handed down Thursday to two supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who participated in the Brasilia riots that shook Brazilian democracy in January. A sentence that is meant to be exemplary. A large majority among the 11 justices of the Supreme Court found Aecio Lucio Costa Pereira, 51, and Thiago Mathar, 43, guilty of the five charges against them.
A week after the inauguration of left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, thousands of people refusing to accept his election against Jair Bolsonaro poured into the emblematic Three Powers Square in Brasilia, the heart of Brazilian democracy, on 8 January. Protesters had invaded the presidential palace, the legislature and the Supreme Court, in scenes reminiscent of the storming of the Capitol in Washington by supporters of Donald Trump on January 6, 2021.
A fine of nearly six million euros
Aecio Lucio Costa Pereira, from the state of Sao Paulo, was found guilty of, inter alia, attempted coup d'état, criminal association and damage to classified public property. He will also have to pay an individual fine, and contribute to compensation "for moral damage and collective material damage" of 30 million reals (about 5.8 million euros), with the other people convicted for these riots. He had shared on social networks a video in which he had filmed himself in the Senate chamber, celebrating the invasion and wearing a T-shirt flanked by the words "Military intervention".
Video. The attack on Brasilia "is the translation of a drift of Brazil during the last fifteen years"
"The objective was, by using violence, to put Brasilia under siege and spread throughout the country the practice of criminal acts that undermine the rule of law," said Cristiano Zanin, one of the judges who voted Thursday. Reporting judge Alexandre de Moraes, who first proposed the 17-year prison sentence, said the protesters wanted to "convince the army to join a coup."
The second convict, Thiago Mathar, was seen inside the presidential palace during the riots. According to his defence, he only entered for cover during clashes between police and rioters on Three Powers Square. This did not prevent the majority of judges from sentencing him to 14 years' imprisonment. The Brazilian prosecutor's office has prosecuted a total of 232 people.