Bolsonaro supporter who stormed Brazil’s capital will get 17-year sentence – Nationwide

Brazil’s Supreme Courtroom handed a 17-year jail sentence Thursday to a supporter of former President Jair Bolsonaro who stormed high authorities places of work on Jan. 8 in an alleged bid to forcefully restore the right-wing chief to workplace.

Aecio Lucio Costa Pereira, 51, is the primary of a number of individuals within the rebellion to be prosecuted.

In January, cameras on the Senate filmed him carrying a shirt calling for a army coup and recording a video of himself praising others who had additionally damaged into the constructing. Nearly 1,500 folks have been detained on the day of the riots, although most have been launched.

Nearly all of the 11 justices of the court docket dominated that Pereira dedicated 5 crimes: legal affiliation; staging a coup; violent assault on the rule of legislation; certified harm; and destruction of public property. They sentenced him to 17 years in jail.

Pereira denied any wrongdoing and claimed he took half in a peaceable demonstration of unarmed folks.

Three different defendants additionally have been standing trial Thursday as a part of the identical case, and a ultimate resolution for every defendant might drag into coming days.

The rioters refused to just accept Bolsonaro’s defeat to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose inauguration came about one week earlier than the rebellion. Lula, who additionally ruled Brazil between 2003-2010, beat Bolsonaro by the narrowest margin in Brazil’s fashionable historical past.

The buildings of Congress, the Supreme Courtroom and presidential palace have been trashed by the pro-Bolsonaro rioters. They bypassed safety barricades, climbed onto roofs, smashed home windows and invaded all three buildings, which have been largely vacant on the weekend of the incident.

Lula has accused Bolsonaro of encouraging the rebellion, as have lots of Bolsonaro’s critics, and prosecutors are investigating his function in inciting the mayhem. The previous president has denied any wrongdoing.

The incident recalled the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. Politicians warned for months {that a} related rebellion was a chance in Brazil, provided that Bolsonaro had sown doubt in regards to the reliability of the nation’s digital voting system — with none proof.

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