Defense appeals again and says that Braga Netto, at liberty, is not a 'risk to public order'

General Walter Braga Netto's defense filed an appeal with the First Chamber of the Supreme Federal Court on Tuesday, the 22nd, seeking to overturn the pretrial detention imposed on Alexandre de Moraes. The former Chief of Staff and Defense Minister of the Bolsonaro administration has been imprisoned since December 14th in Rio's Military Village on suspicion of attempting to obstruct the trial of the coup plot. In the petition, the defense claims that there is no "concrete evidence" that, if released, Braga Netto poses a risk to public order.

Braga Netto's new request—signed by criminal lawyers José Luís Oliveira Lima, Rodrigo Dall'Acqua, and three other lawyers—is a "procedural appeal" seeking review of individual decisions. Last Wednesday, the 16th, Moraes upheld the soldier's pretrial detention.

The defense points out that the minister's decision was not based on 'concrete and current facts'.

“Keeping General Braga Netto in preventive detention on the basis of a factual situation that is supposedly unchanged at this point, given all the aforementioned elements presented, means allowing him to remain deprived of his liberty to protect the progress of an investigation that has already been completed, the confidentiality of a plea bargain that has already been made public, or the soundness of a procedural investigation that has already concluded,” the defense protests.

For Braga Netto's lawyers, the Attorney General's Office's ruling—upholding the officer's detention—also lacked "concrete grounds." "It's clear that the transcribed excerpt from the Attorney General's Office's ruling is also completely generic and laconic, making the lack of concrete grounds for maintaining Braga Netto's pretrial detention indisputable."

According to the defense, 'no new and contemporary fact was pointed out in the opinion and in the appealed decision itself, no concrete reason for alleged danger generated by freedom, nor any reasonable justification for not applying any alternative precautionary measures'.

“The alleged presence of the requirements for precautionary custody is merely reaffirmed through paraphrases of the legal provisions.”

The military officer's defense filed an appeal against the first arrest warrant in December 2024 to the First Panel of the Supreme Federal Court (STF). In March, the panel unanimously upheld Moraes's decision.

Anticipation of sentence

The general's lawyers point out that the Supreme Court's own case law 'has already established that it is clearly illegal to maintain preventive detention without indicating concrete and current facts that effectively demonstrate the risk generated by freedom'.

“There is a precedent clearly establishing that 'to order preventive detention, the judge must refer to new and contemporary facts, in accordance with article 312 of the Code of Criminal Procedure'.”

The defense notes that 'it is also the common understanding of this Supreme Court that it is inadmissible to maintain preventive detention without due demonstration of risk or danger, as occurs in this case, as it constitutes the prohibited anticipation of punishment'.

Mauro Cid

Braga Netto's defense once again rejects the claim that the general acted to 'obtain information related to the collaboration agreement signed with Mauro Cid,' Bolsonaro's former aide-de-camp.

"There is no way to continue to sustain the claim that Braga Netto acted to obstruct the investigation. With the publication of Mauro Cid's plea bargain records, what this defense has asserted from the beginning has been confirmed: there was never any minimally reliable evidence to support the police conclusion that Braga Netto allegedly attempted to interfere in the investigations. In particular, some of Mauro Cid's statements made available to the defense indicate that the collaborator stated that he was not pressured by anyone to disclose the contents of the plea bargain, especially since everything had already been publicized in the media."