Opinion: the Brazilian Military Court and its fear of a clash with the Supreme Court

(Opinion) The Army General and President of the Superior Military Court (STM), Minister Lúcio de Barros Góes, denied this Thursday (Dec. 22) a habeas corpus (HC) petition filed by João Carlos Augusto Melo Moreira in favor of President Jair Bolsonaro and Defense Minister Paulo Sérgio Nogueira.

The HC was filed on charges that the Justice of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Alexandre de Moraes, committed an abuse of authority against Bolsonaro and Nogueira by denying access to the source codes of the electronic ballot boxes.

The president of the Court refused to proceed with the case because the STM claims to have no jurisdiction to judge possible crimes committed by ministers of the STF.

“It is crystal clear that the request conveyed in this constitutional action does not make up the jurisdiction of the STM, under the Constitution and current laws, which prevents the knowledge of the injunction sought,” he said.

The STM had already used the same argument two days earlier to get out of a similar affair.

The Minister of the Superior Military Court (STM), Artur Vidigal, denied the continuation of the criminal representation of a lawyer who listed at least 17 requests, among them the arrest of the ministers of the STF Alexandre de Moraes and Luís Roberto Barroso.

The minister affirmed that the STM’s jurisdiction is for processing and filing military crimes and emphasized that the Military Superior Court is “absolutely incompetent to process and judge the defendants”.

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