São Paulo, Brazil — Brazil’s lower house of Congress on Tuesday approved a bill that aims to reduce sentences for those convicted of crimes involving the January 8, 2023 attacks on the country’s government headquarters in Brasília.
The bill would also apply to jailed former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup.
The Chamber of Deputies approved the bill at 2:30 AM during an unusually late session by 291 votes in favor and 148 against. The bill still needs to pass the Senate.
Voting for the bill on Tuesday was not expected, and when the president of the Chamber of Deputies called it to the floor for a vote, chaos broke out in the chamber.
Glauber Braga, a left-wing congressman, protested against holding a vote on the bill by taking the Chamber president’s chair and refusing to leave – he was eventually taken away by congressional police.
Túlio Amancio, a reporter from a national TV station, witnessed the melee and said he saw colleagues being physically injured.
Amancio told Brazil Reports the press was brutally expelled from the plenary, and the live TV signal from within the Chamber of Deputies was turned off.
According to the reporter, a number of journalists, including a female, were assaulted; one, he said, needed to be taken to get medical attention inside the Chamber.
A possible get out of jail card for Bolsonaro?
In September, Bolsonaro was convicted along with military and government officials for planning a coup to remain in power after he lost the 2022 election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The plot allegedly included a plan to assassinate Lula. Bolsonaro has denied his involvement.
Since then, Bolsonaro’s lawmaker allies had been trying to negotiate an amnesty law to pardon the ex-president and all those convicted in the January 8 attacks, which caused millions of dollars in damage to Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace.
The bill that passed through Congress on Tuesday is a lighter version of the amnesty law.
Maria do Rosário, a congresswoman from the center-left Worker’s Party, believes the Senate – which has a conservative majority – will most likely approve the bill.
Featured image credit:
Image: Discussion and voting on legislative proposals in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies
Source: Bruno Spada/Câmara dos Deputados
