Overview
- The Supreme Federal Court formalized a criminal action on August 18–19, 2026 that moves pastor Silas Malafaia’s case into the instruction phase for testimony and evidence collection.
- The charge accepted by the court is injúria, the criminal offence for insulting public officials, based on remarks Malafaia made at an April 2025 rally on Avenida Paulista calling senior generals "frouxos," "covardes" and "omissos."
- The Primeira Turma was divided over a related calúnia charge that would require proving Malafaia falsely attributed a specific crime to a named officer; a tied vote led the court’s rules to drop calúnia and leave only injúria.
- Malafaia rejects the case, saying his comments were generic, invoking freedom of expression and arguing he should be tried in first‑instance court rather than the STF, while the PGR says the statements aimed to publicly embarrass the Army’s high command.
- The instruction phase will gather witness statements and records before ministers decide guilt or acquittal and the case could shape how Brazil’s courts handle public criticism of military leaders and related probes of political networks.