Justice shifts from hard-line stance to defendant-friendly approach
09/10/2025
Justice Luiz Fux’s vote in the Supreme Court’s First Panel on Wednesday (10) cements the more defendant-friendly approach he has adopted during the criminal proceedings over the coup plot—a departure from the tough-on-crime posture that marked his role in the Car Wash anti-corruption task force.
At the start of his remarks, Justice Fux questioned whether the Court had jurisdiction to try former President Jair Bolsonaro and echoed a central argument of the defense teams: that there was not enough time to review the “billions of pages” of case files.
Justice Fux was once known for his hard line on criminal matters, earning him the label of one of the court’s most staunch Car Wash supporters. In recent months, however, he has emerged as the main dissenting voice in the trial involving Mr. Bolsonaro and the January 8, 2023, attacks on Brazil’s halls of power.
When the first cases of the rioters who stormed the headquarters of the three branches of government came before the court, Justice Fux joined Justice Alexandre de Moraes in imposing harsher sentences. Now, however, he has positioned himself as Mr. Moraes’s main counterweight.
The turning point came in March, when Justice Fux requested more time to study the case of Débora Rodrigues dos Santos, a hairdresser who spray-painted “Game over, sucker” on the Justice statue outside the Supreme Court. When he cast his vote, Justice Fux argued for a sentence of one year and six months—far below the 14-year prison term ultimately imposed by the First Panel.
*By Isadora Peron, Valor — Brasília
Source: Valor International
https://valorinternational.globo.com/