Brazil launches trials on Jan. 8 coup attempt, convicts first rioter
The convicted man is the first of 1,300 defendants involved in the riot to be put on trial this year.
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Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro destroy a window of the plenary of the Supreme Court in Brasilia on January 8, 2023 (AFP)
Brazil's Supreme Court has delivered its first conviction against a rioter on five counts in the case of the January 8 coup attempt, with 1,300 defendants in total waiting for trial.
According to reports from Brazilian media on Thursday, the court is expected to convict all rioters involved in the incident before the end of this year.
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As reported by the Brazilian news website G1, a decisive majority of seven out of the 11 Supreme Court judges have found Aecio Lucio Costa Pereira guilty of all five charges he faced. These charges include armed criminal conspiracy, an attack on the democratic rule of law, a coup d'etat, as well as damage and defacement of cultural heritage monuments.
Supreme Justice Alexandre de Moraes has proposed a 17-year prison sentence for Costa, garnering support from five other judges, as reported by the site.
The January 8 events witnessed supporters of former Brazilian right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro storming several government buildings after his electoral defeat to socialist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
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Rioters stormed the Planalto presidential palace, Congress, and the Supreme Court building, and took control of the institutions for three hours. Their actions were described by da Silva as "acts of terrorism".
Law enforcement managed to clear the buildings of rioters by evening, but the incidents resulted in the looting of all the raided buildings and the detention of approximately 2,000 individuals linked to the riots.
