Dozens of military personnel, including generals, give testimony to the PF about the January 8 attacks

The Federal Police set up a task force in Brasília to take the testimony of dozens of military personnel throughout this Wednesday in the inquiry that is being processed by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) that investigates the violent acts that led to the invasion and depredation of the headquarters of the Three Powers on Jan. 8, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

This is one of the largest investigations involving members of the Armed Forces conducted by civil courts since Brazil’s redemocratization.

According to a PF source, there are a total of 94 soldiers, three of whom are generals, who have been testifying since early morning at the National Police Academy, about 20 kilometers from the center of the capital. One of those who has already deposed was General Gustavo Henrique Dutra de Menezes, who headed the Planalto Military Command.

In the report produced during the federal intervention in the Federal District, Dutra was named nominally responsible for having aborted an order given by the then intervenor, Ricardo Cappelli, to arrest people who, after the attacks on the Esplanada on January 8, returned to the camp. which brought together electoral denialists at the Army HQ.

The forecast, according to the source, is that 49 soldiers will testify in the morning and another 45 in the afternoon. These testimonies are being monitored by prosecutors and attorneys from the Strategic Group that was created by the Attorney General of the Republic, Augusto Aras, to monitor this and other cases related to the attacks, according to a source from the PGR.

The effective investigation of the military in the episode began to take off last month after the Minister of the STF Alexandre de Moraes decided that it is up to the Supreme Court to investigate and judge the military for the violent acts in Brasília and not to the Military Justice.

Moraes had been provoked to demonstrate by the PF amid demands made by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and by allies of punishing the military for involvement in coup attacks.

In an interview with Reuters last month, the attorney general of Military Justice, Antônio Pereira Duarte, said that there would be no “witch hunt” in the investigation of acts of support or omission in relation to the attacks on the headquarters of the Three Powers, noting that its role is to avoid being “frivolous” in the accusations so as not to incur in abuse of authority and that the institutions were functioning harmoniously and responsibly.

At the time, according to information from the Military Public Prosecutor’s Office, 15 investigations had been opened linked to acts linked to the 8th of January involving the performance of military personnel in Brasília. The majority, 11, were actual news, preliminary phase of investigation – only one of them refers to the alleged omission of generals in the case, conducted by Duarte.