Brazil: 17-year prison sentence for pro-Bolsonaro defendant in January 8 riots
Brazil riots
A day after the trial began against pro-Bolosnaro rioters who stormed the Supreme Court of Brazil, the National Congress of Brazil and the Planalto Presidential Palace on January 8, the apex court has sentenceda defendant to 17 years in prison on charges including an attempted coup.
51-year-old Aecio Pereira, the accused, was unanimously convicted by thecourt's 11 justices who found himguilty of all five charges he faced for invading the Congress building. Pereira faced charges related toviolent uprising against the rule of law, attempted coup, armed criminal conspiracy, damaging a national heritage site and aggravated property destruction.
"The (rioters') objective was to violently seize Brasilia and spread a criminal attack against the rule of law across the country," said Justice Cristiano Zanin while delivering the verdict.
During the hearing, Pereira denied any wrongdoing but an obscenevideo that he made on the day, wearinga T-shirt marked "Military Intervention" at the Senate president's table proved to be one of the jarring pieces of evidence against him.
His lawyers argued thatPereira, a formeremployee of the Sao Paulo municipal sanitation company, was unarmed and committed no acts of violence. However, in the video, he could be heardurging fellow Bolsonaro supporters to "take to the streets".
Pereira is one of the four defendants who will be facing music in court for their actions, which dreweerie similarities to the January 6 insurrection attempt by former US president Donald Trumpsupporters in 2021 at the US Capitol Hill.
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Notably, during the opening remarks on Wednesday (September 13), Judge Alexandre de Moraes took a scathing view of the rioters and saidinsurrectionists had rampaged through the heart of Brazilian democracywhilst showing "utter contempt for the republic and imbued with the audacity of ignorance”.
Attempted coup by Bolsonaro supporters
Over 2,000 rioters were arrested in the aftermath of what Bolsonaro'sleftwing successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, called an attempted coup d’état.The rioters, also referred to as "Bolsonaristas", looted offices, destroyed public property, desecrated precious works of art and left ugly graffiti messages calling for a military coup to overthrow the Lula administration.
WATCH | Supporters of Brazil's Bolsonaro storm Presidential palace
Bolsonaro's unruly far-right supporters followed theline taken by their leader who believed that the presidential election was rigged against him as Lula won by a razor-thin margin.
(With inputs from agencies)
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