Overview
- Brazil’s Supreme Court First Chamber unanimously found eight military officers and one federal police agent guilty, while acquitting General Estevam Gaspar de Oliveira for lack of proof.
- The ruling says the group planned to shoot Justice Alexandre de Moraes and poison President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, with Moraes stating the term “neutralization” meant assassination.
- Hélio Ferreira Lima received 24 years, Rodrigo Bezerra de Azevedo, Rafael Martins de Oliveira, and Wladimir Matos Soares received 21 years, and others were sentenced to between one and 17 years.
- Investigators seized hundreds of messages and planning documents, and the case record notes that a federal agent infiltrated Lula’s security team to facilitate surveillance.
- Judges said the plot faltered without backing from Army and Air Force commanders, the sentences await appeals before enforcement, and the case is linked to Jair Bolsonaro’s earlier 27-year conviction under house arrest.