MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brasilia rioters wanted to kill De Moraes, judge says

De Moraes was to be assassinated in the most barbaric ways possible

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the Jan. 8 rioters who seized the buildings of all three branches of government, wanted to hang him in the process. Those financing the uprising planned to convince the army to join a coup after the invasion of Congress, case rapporteur De Moraes explained in an interview with O Globo.

The magistrate said one of the plans was to have him arrested by the Army's Special Forces, who would send him to Goiânia. Another option was an assassination, with the judge's body to be dumped on the way to the capital of Goiás. The third possibility was to hang him in the Three Branches Square.

“To feel the level of aggression and hatred of these people, who don't know how to differentiate the individual from the institution,” De Moraes told the newspaper.

Almost a year after the events, the STF has convicted 30 people while another 29 criminal cases are to be ruled upon in the first week of February after the summer recess. De Moraes is rapporteur in 1,345 cases against Jan. 8 coup plotters.

”Democracy is untouchable and the STF will not allow any kind of impunity (...) The institutions have shown their maturity and strength, defending the Constitution, democracy, and the rule of law,” Moraes told Estadão.

The judge also argued that the idea was to take control of Congress until President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva issued a decree of Guarantee of Law and Order (GLO), after which they would try to convince the army to join the anti-democratic movement “which shows how right it was not to decree a GLO,” De Moraes told O Globo while insisting on regulating social media.

Federal Police Chief Andrei Passos Rodrigues told Estadão that “we can't afford to see if it's bravado” or not. The threats to De Moraes were “woven into social networks in exchanges of messages,” he also explained.

According to Passos Rodrigues, the social media postings even contemplated the “elimination” of Moraes “in the most barbaric ways possible.”

”What I can say is that this is absolutely serious and we will always act very rigorously once these people (authors of the alleged plan to attack the minister) have been identified. There was this situation that the minister made public and this fact is very worrying.“

Meanwhile, Acting Justice Minister Ricardo Cappelli was quoted by Agencia Brasil as saying that the alleged plot to assassinate De Moraes was extremely serious and unacceptable and that the investigations must go to ”the last consequences.” De Moraes even told O Globo that the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin) was involved in the plot using state-of-the-art Israeli technology.

“It is extremely serious and unacceptable to consider attempting the life of a minister of the Supreme Court of Brazil,” Cappelli said.

The rioters are believed to be supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro.