Ministers of the Brazilian Supreme Court arrest Journalists, Federal Deputy and supporters of the President of the Republic Jair Bolsonaro.
Since President Jair Bolsonaro took office in January 2019, the supreme court has shown signs of harassment of the President, his family and supporters, including government ministers. They interfered with the President’s work more than 123 times.
Alexandre de Moraes, Minister of the Supreme Court, has persecuted and censored journalists, overturning or demonetizing profiles, arresting journalists and breaking the bank and telephone confidentiality, for “crime of opinion”, and many are monocratic decisions.
In 2020, the persecution of the right started with supporters being arrested for demonstrating or issuing opinions against STF ministers.
Among them, journalist Oswaldo Eustaquio was arrested for his opinion, and suffered torture in jail, leaving him paralysed.
Another arbitrary arrest was that of Federal Deputy Daniel Silveira, with parliamentary immunity, who was also arrested for his opinion.
According to the Federal Constitution of Brazil, every parliamentarian has the right to free expression, and cannot be punished for any words.
Art 53: Deputies and Senators are inviolable, civilly and criminally, for ANY of their opinions, words and votes.
The Deputy was arrested in “Flagrante” at home on 16 February.
STF Judge Alexandre de Moraes understood that as a video was made and that it is still circulating on the Internet, it remains flagrant.
And the same minister Alexandre, who said he was the victim, opened the investigation, investigated, judged and ordered the arrest, which is unconstitutional, according to the federal constitution.
The federal deputy, who was imprisoned until March 14, had his freedom conditioned with an electronic ankle bracelet.
The minister alleges violation of the electronic ankle bracelet, which prompted a second arrest on 24 June. The deputy denies the accusation.
As required by law, the minister conditioned his freedom to the payment of a guarantee, in the amount of 100,000 reais (Brazilian currency), which was done by his lawyers, but the minister inactivated the account hours later, reversing the bail deposit and keeping the federal deputy stuck. Which is also unconstitutional.
These inquiries opened by Minister Alexandre de Moraes are illegal inquiries, but they have the support of other ministers.
Doing a brief survey to find out how the nominations for the supreme court were, we saw that the majority are nominations from the Brazilian left, which is the opposition to the Government.
“A supreme court has to be independent, fair and non-partisan”.
You should not interfere in other powers or comment outside the records” as according to information from our source, it has happened in Brazil. (The source prefers not to identify himself as he has already suffered persecution from the Brazilian Supreme Court).
Also according to our source, the ministers, in addition to invading the President’s power, and not letting him work, have only persecuted President Bolsonaro’s supporters. Leftists who committed crimes are acquitted, she quoted the former president of the republic and ex-convict Lula.
The Deputy’s family and friends believe he was not arrested for words, but for fighting for laws that protect the Freedom of Expression.
According to Jornal Hora Brasília, the Project of Law 291 of 2021, authored by federal deputy Daniel Silveira, may be the salvation for conservative channels and websites. The idea of the PL is to improve the Marco Civil da Internet to prohibit the exclusion of content published on social networks, guaranteeing freedom of expression and opinion.
According to the PL:
“The law demands improvements regarding the guarantee of the user’s free expression on social networks. The exchange of messages and the dissemination of ideas represents a contemporary form of public debate that deserves to be protected, in the name of preserving individual rights to free expression, communication and expression of thought. ”
Currently, platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have applied, unilaterally and arbitrarily, successive blockages of publications and suspension of accounts of citizens, journalists and even state and federal parliamentarians and other authorities with a ‘conservative’ bias, due to ideological or “divergences” policies. This is characterized as censorship and can be fought with legislation.
“Contributing to ensure the free expression of ideas on the internet, valuing the foundations of our democracy. In this sense, we count on the support of our Peers in the discussion and approval of this proposal, which we deem undeniably meritorious”.
Roberto Jefferson the National President of the PTB Party was arrested on Friday, 13 August, and more supporters of President Bolsonaro had the “visit” of the PF at the behest of Minister Alexandre of the STF.
Among these, there is an 81-year-old singer who organized a demonstration to ask for freedom of expression and so that, according to him, “the STF would let President Bolsonaro work without this persecution”.
He had already filed for the Minister’s impeachment and PTB-affiliated journalist Oswaldo Eustaquio denounced Minister Alexandre de Moraes to the International Court of Human Rights.
Ives Gandras Martins, a great Brazilian jurist, commented on the decisions and arrests made by Minister Moraes.
“Despite the admiration I have for the jurist Alexandre de Moraes, with whom I have written books, I have the impression that his decision in relation to Roberto Jefferson was wrong,” said Ives Gandra, in a video sent to the program Os Pingos nos Is, from Jovem Pan radio. “It’s a prior censorship; in fact, in this particular case, the Attorney General of the Republic clearly states that the decision is a prior censorship.”
According to the jurist, Alexandre de Moraes’ decision is not in accordance with the Federal Constitution of 1988. “In a democracy, we have to accept all declarations, from the least aggressive to the most aggressive”, he asserted.
“Since there are no attacks on democracy, but only different ways of thinking, there can be no censorship. We fight for democracy so that we have the opportunity for wide expression.”
The President of the Republic filed a request for the impeachment of Alexandre de Moraes, which joined other requests, including a petition signed by more than 3 million people. But all were rejected by the President of the Federal Senate.
The Brazilian people are organizing a demonstration on September 7 in several cities across the country, in favour of freedom of expression and against the “tyranny” of ministers of the supreme court.
