The President of the Senate and National Congress, Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP), has scheduled a session for April 30 to review President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s veto of the Sentencing Bill, which proposes reduced sentences for those convicted of anti-democratic acts.
Alcolumbre announced the session on Thursday (9) via a statement.
“A session of the National Congress is convened for April 30, with a single item on the agenda: veto No. 3 of 2023, concerning the so-called Sentencing Bill.”
The Bill (PL) 2162/2023 was fully vetoed by Lula at the beginning of January. The announcement was made during a ceremony at the Planalto Palace, marking three years since the attacks by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who, dissatisfied with the election results, stormed the National Congress, the Planalto Palace, and the Supreme Federal Court (STF).
“All of them had ample right to defense, were judged with transparency and impartiality. At the end of the trial, they were convicted based on solid evidence, not on serial illegalities, mere convictions, or fake PowerPoint presentations,” Lula stated.
Approved in December, the text stipulates that crimes of attempt against the Democratic State of Law and coup d’état, when committed in the same context, will result in the application of the harsher penalty instead of the sum of both penalties. The project’s focus is a change in the calculation of sentences, as well as the general method of calculating sentences, also reducing the time for progression from a closed to a semi-open or open prison regime.
Besides Bolsonaro, such changes could benefit defendants like military officials Almir Garnier, former Navy commander; Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, former Defense Minister; Walter Braga Netto, former Chief of Staff; and Augusto Heleno, former head of the Institutional Security Office (GSI).
The bill would also reduce the sentence progression time for some common criminals, according to experts consulted by Agência Brasil.
Source: Agência Brasil.
Original published at O Cafezinho.