Moraes orders the release of three colonels from the former PMDF summit on 8/1

Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Alexandre de Moraes ordered the release of three colonels from the Military Police of the Federal District (PMDF), defendants for the acts of January 8 last year.

Colonels Fábio Augusto Vieira, Klepter Rosa and Marcelo Casimiro will be released this Thursday (28/3). In the decision, Moraes grants provisional freedom with some precautionary measures, such as the prohibition of being absent from the DF and home confinement at night and on weekends.

Colonel Marcelo Casimiro Vasconcelos Rodrigues gave a statement to the CPI on the Anti-Democratic Acts of the CLDF.
(photo: Carlos Gandra/ClDF Agency)

Furthermore, the three colonels must wear an electronic ankle bracelet and, in order to avoid having their freedom suspended, they must appear every Monday at the DF Criminal Executions Court.

Within Moraes’ decision, the magistrate also determines the prohibition of being absent from the country and the immediate suspension of firearm possession and the prohibition of communicating with others involved.

O Mail He sought Colonel Fábio’s defense, but received no response. The report did not locate Klepter and Casimiro’s defense.

Complaint

The three police officers, alongside other PMDF officers, were targets of a PF operation in August last year. They have been defendants since February this year.

In the complaint signed by the coordinator of the Strategic Group for Anti-Democratic Acts of the PGR, Carlos Frederico Santos, the prosecutor reveals that there was a network of disinformation among members of the high command, with the passing on of false messages that called into question the fairness of the Brazilian electoral process .

In one of them, two days before the second round of the 2022 elections, Klepter Rosa sent a message, without any context, to the then general commander, Colonel Fábio Augusto Vieira. In it, there is an edited audio attributed to former presidential candidate Ciro Gomes (PDT), where he makes it clear that the electoral election would already be “armed”, in addition to that order will be “reestablished”, removing minister Alexandre de Moraes.

In the messages analyzed by the PF and PGR, upon receiving this “report”, Fábio forwarded it to Colonel Marcelo Casimiro, former commander of the 1st Regional Policing Command (1st CPR), creating a network of misinformation and false lies within the command. of the corporation. In the PGR report, the conspiratorial messages continued between Casimiro and Fábio after the elections, which democratically elected President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

One of the examples of messages circulating among members of the force was on November 1st. That day, in the messages obtained by the PF and attached to the PGR complaint, Casimiro sent an explanatory table that, according to him, was for the “regular presidential succession”.

In it, there are three hypotheses: a supposed application of art. 142 of the Federal Constitution; “military intervention”; and “federal intervention” by military initiative. Even though he doubts the origin of the messages, Casimiro says: “”I don’t know if this understanding is true, but the explanation is interesting.”

The messages between the two did not cease and, towards the end of the day, Casimiro sent another “chain of misinformation” in which he said that there was a report from the Armed Forces, saying that former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) had won the elections .

Upon reading the message, Fábio, even though he knew that the content was not true, did not retort to the colonel, who commanded the area responsible for the Esplanada dos Ministérios battalion. “The snake will smoke CMT (commander). Even if it’s not true,” he wrote.

In the PGR’s 196-page work, the complaint is broken down into a kind of timeline, with each event investigated by the group of prosecutors. In the section made by the report, the attempted invasion of the PF headquarters, on December 12, and the terror scenario, in the country’s capital, was criticized by the PGR. In the complaint, Carlos Frederico mentions that, although present at the scene, the PMDF did not arrest anyone.

The justification given by the officials, including the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) into the Undemocratic Acts of the Legislative Chamber, was that the corporation chose to bring “order to the house”, mainly because part of the team was allocated to Lula’s diplomacy — the case occurred when the indigenous José Acácio Serere Xavante, known as chief Tsereré, was arrested by the PF itself.

Despite the justifications, the PGR did not understand it that way. To maintain that the colonels were omissive, he presented messages sent by Casimiro and the former commander of the Operations Department (DOP), colonel Jorge Eduardo Naime, to the then general commander Fábio Augusto, which indicated that the corporation had clear opportunities to carry out the arrest of protesters. “In a preliminary moment, at the same time as the attacks, Marcelo Casimiro revealed that the Military Police had produced information that the buses with the insurgents left the camp in front of the Army HQ, heading towards the PF headquarters.”

Still based on the complaint, Fábio Augusto, Naime and Casimiro were aware that the camp in the Urban Military Sector (SMU) had a concentration of extremists and that it was a point of organization for the practice of anti-democratic acts aimed at guaranteeing the permanence of the former president in the power.

All are accused of the crimes of violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, coup d’état, qualified damage, deterioration of listed property and for violating the Organic Law and the PM’s Internal Regulations.

Positioning

In a statement, lawyers João Paulo Boaventura and Thiago Turbay, who are defending Colonel Fábio Augusto, celebrated Moraes’ decision. “The technical defense of the former general commander of the PMDF celebrates the correction of
decision and renews its confidence in the Democratic Rule of Law, in the Institutions
Brazilians and Democracy”, they state.

Colonel Klepter Rosa’s defense pointed out that Moraes’ decision is correct. The officer assumed leadership of the corporation on orders from the then intervener Ricardo Cappelli, after the arrest of his successor Fábio Augusto Vieira.

“From the beginning, Colonel Klepter’s defense has drawn attention to this peculiarity, so that if there is an individualization of conduct and, consequently, of responsibilities, the granting of provisional freedom would be the logical consequence. The wise decision handed down today demonstrates that the work of the defense was effective, and reinforces our conviction that we will have a careful analysis, case by case, of each person’s conduct, and, in the end, the conviction of the learned Ministers will certainly be for acquittal of Colonel Klepter”, said lawyers Almiro Júnior and Newton Rubens.

The report did not locate Colonel Marcelo Casimiro’s lawyers.