The current situation Brazil is experiencing is becoming clearer every day.
Since the establishment of a de facto authoritarian regime, in January 2022, numerous unconstitutionalities, illegalities, and abuses of power have been committed against former President Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters.
To be fair, the administration of Mr. Bolsonaro was marked by a series of boycotts and interferences—especially by top federal judges who set themselves up to resolve matters of an administrative/executive nature, thus hindering legitimate presidential decisions.
The story is long and cannot be summarized here but it entails numerous illegalities and injustices committed against various individuals who worked or supported Mr. Bolsonaro.
To contextualize the facts to be exposed in this article, it should be mentioned that in 2019, at the initiative of the Chief Justice of the Federal Supreme Court, inquiry number 4,781 was opened.
At the time, the argument was to investigate alleged “crimes against honour” committed against the justices of that very court.
Immense legal controversy surrounded the case because it was very clear to anyone, even without any training in law, that judges cannot preside over criminal investigations as if they were police chiefs.
In addition, it is up to the Public Prosecutor’s Office to file a complaint and, last but not least, the alleged victim of the act cannot be the very judge of the case that deals with the same alleged act.
In short, the legal oddities of this inquiry are so many that it would take hundreds of pages to enumerate them.
Unbelievable Inquiry
On April 15, 2019, then-federal Attorney-General Andre Mendonca, who was naturally in charge of prosecution, decided on April 15, 2019, that such an inquiry should be archived.He explicitly stated: “The accusatory criminal system does not authorize the conduct of the criminal investigation to be carried out by the judiciary, notably when it excludes the holder of the criminal action, or when it imposes secrecy on him in the conduct of the investigation. These measures violate Article 129-I, II, VII, VIII, and paragraph 2 of the Constitution.”
In 2020, with this ill-fated investigation in full swing, the leftist REDE Party also requested that it be archived.
The court then decided, by a 10 to one vote, to continue the investigation. The reason, inscribed on the summary, was the supposed seriousness of the threat to members of the Supreme Court.
In other words, amazingly, it was as if they were saying that in the face of supposed “great threats,” the Brazilian Constitution would no longer matter.
For the then-Chief Justice Celso de Melo, the inquiry would have “the legitimate objective of enabling the institutional defence of the Supreme Court, protecting the honourability of this high Court, and preserving the physical and moral integrity of the judges who are part of it.”
There was a warning by the veteran Justice of the Supreme Court Marco Aurelio Mello whose argument was entirely disregarded.
In his words at the time: “We are facing a stillborn inquiry, and in the face of the anecdotes [hearsays] verified after it was established, I would even say an inquiry of the end of the world, without limits.”
So, as unbelievable as this may seem, this inquiry remains open to this day. Even after five years, the legal deadline for the conclusion of this type of procedure in Brazil is actually 30 days, and it may be only exceptionally extended.
Currently, people who dared to publicly criticise the Court, the electronic voting machines, some COVID-19 vaccines, or suggest certain types of COVID-19 treatment, are the subject of investigation under this extraordinary procedure.
The first of these investigations unfolded into at least two: Inquiry 4921, which investigates acts of vandalism that occurred in Brasilia on the eve of the inauguration of President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva; and another that is investigating an alleged coup attempt by former President Jair Bolsonaro.
To circumvent the criticism that a judge should not act on his own initiative, Justice Moraes has a team of police chiefs who have been accommodated in his office, ready to make requests for precautionary measures, which are granted (and never rejected) immediately, in decisions with dozens of pages.
False Premise
Another chapter of the judicial arbitrariness being practised is the case of former International Advisor Filipe Martins, being persecuted by the federal police and the federal Supreme Court.He was an international advisor to Mr. Bolsonaro and his arrest—for allegedly being a fugitive in the United States—is the result of a federal police operation that is investigating alleged “attacks against the democratic rule of law in Brazil.”
But “fugitive” from what, if he hadn’t been accused? “Fugitive” how, if he was found residing with his fiancée and living in Brazil?
In addition to being unfounded, the allegations bring flawed evidence such as a “mistaken” report from the federal police claiming that Mr. Martins left Brazil for “escape” or “shady purposes,” although his lawyers have already proved that he has not been absent from Brazil since December 2022.
In sum, his deprivation of liberty is shielded on an entirely false premise.
What is happening in Brazil is extremely serious. There is an ongoing suppression of constitutional rights as well as a complete disregard for principles of natural justice and due process of law.
As a consequence, the accused and their defence lawyers are simply not provided with the full content or nature of the accusations as well as the “evidential” elements that make up the records.
What we are witnessing, therefore, is a series of non-sensical procedures that make Franz Kafka’s work look like the clumsy essay of a high schooler.
It should be repeated that the investigations presided over by Justice Moraes continue without a deadline to end, without lawyers having full access to them, without external control, and with the consent of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
It can be inferred, given everything that can be testified, that the main goal is to carry out the arrest of Mr. Bolsonaro, for having “discredited” the electoral system, or for exposing facts about COVID-19 vaccines, or for allegedly encouraging acts of vandalism on Jan. 8, 2023, in Brasilia (Mr. Bolsonaro was in the United States), or for having considered “carrying out a coup d'état,” or for any other reason that they may decide to attribute to him randomly at the convenience of his detractors and political enemies.
To conclude, the gross injustice against Mr. Martins must cease, as must all the arbitrariness and abuse of judicial power that today weigh on millions and millions of Brazilians, who are doing nothing but defending their conscience and their constitutional rights to freedom of political communication and freedom of choice.
