MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Elderly woman given 17 year jail sentence in Brasilia's Jan. 8 riot trial

The defendant said she was to take down De Moraes during the uprising. He was among the ones who voted to keep her in jail for 17 years

Maria de Fátima Mendonça Jacinto Souza, aged 67 and better known as Fátima de Tubarão, was sentenced Friday to 17 years in prison by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) for her involvement in the Jan. 8, 2023, riots at the Three Powers Square in Brasília (DF). The sentence was announced Friday after an STF virtual plenary session.

The defendant was found guilty of violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, coup d'état, qualified damage, deterioration of property, and armed criminal association.

Fátima gained notoriety after a video of her vandalizing the Planalto Palace went viral: “We're going to war, it's war now. We're going to get Xandão now,” she said. By “Xandão” she meant STF Justice Alexandre De Morães, who was later appointed case rapporteur and voted in favor of the 17-year term.

She was arrested on Jan. 27, 2023, during the third phase of Operation Lesa Pátria. De Moraes had upheld her pre-trial detention back in June after her legal team filed an appeal citing health problems.

“I note that the defense has not brought forward any arguments capable of overturning the grounds of the decision that decreed the defendant's pre-trial detention, which remain intact today, and there is no evidence in the case file of any exceptionality that would justify its revision,” De Moraes argued at the time.