The house arrests of eight of the 10 convicts in the coup plot ocurred in Brasília were upheld after a hearing held on Saturday (Dec. 27) by auxiliary judge Luciana Yuki Fugishita Sorrentino, from the office of Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

The hearings aimed to fulfill legal formalities, as the arrests had already been ordered by Moraes, the rapporteur for the coup plot cases at the Supreme Court. Among those who participated in the custody hearings were six Army officers, a senior official of the Federal Police, and Filipe Martins, a former international affairs adviser to former President Jair Bolsonaro.

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Carlos Cesar Moretzsohn Rocha, president of Instituto Voto Legal, was not located by the Federal Police and is considered a fugitive. The house arrest warrant against Army Lieutenant Colonel Guilherme Marques de Almeida was also not served. He traveled to Bahia but committed to returning to Goiânia to begin serving the measure.

Escapes

The house arrests were ordered by Moraes as a preventive measure against further escapes. On Friday (26), former Federal Highway Police director Silvinei Vasques was detained by local authorities after fleeing to Paraguay and attempting to board a flight to El Salvador with a false passport.

According to Moraes, there is a coordinated strategy among individuals convicted of coup-related offenses to leave the country. The justice pointed to multiple escape cases, including that of former Representative Alexandre Ramagem to the United States.

“The modus operandi of the criminal organization convicted by the Supreme Court indicates the possibility of planning and executing escapes outside the national territory, as carried out by the defendant Alexandre Ramagem, including with the help of third parties,” Justice Moraes stated.