MADRID, 23 (EUROPA PRESS)
Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Friday sentenced Bolsonaro's deputy Carmen Zambelli to five years and three months in prison for illegal possession of a firearm and illegal coercion with the use of a weapon, in connection with an incident that occurred on the eve of the 2022 runoff election. Zambelli pulled out a gun and chased a journalist after a verbal exchange during a political event in São Paulo.
The ruling, issued virtually, was approved by a majority of nine votes to two, although the sentence is not yet final, as Zambelli can appeal to the Supreme Court itself.
The two judges who opposed the ruling, Nunes Marques and André Mendonça, have proposed acquitting her of the charge of illegal possession of a weapon. Marques has also requested the reclassification of the crime of coercion, reducing it to the category of arbitrary exercise of one's will, which would annul the conviction. For his part, Mendonça has advocated for an eight-month prison sentence for illegal coercion, according to the Brazilian News Agency.
Zambelli's lawyer, Fábio Pagnozzi, has expressed his "profound disagreement" with the STF judges and his client's "surprise" at the conviction, which will be "firmly contested" as Pagnozzi believes it violates some of the basic principles of due process.
"The congresswoman reaffirms her innocence and asserts that she is a victim of political persecution, just on the eve of her extradition request, in a record-breaking trial," the lawyer denounced, criticizing the ruling as the result of "an extensive and arbitrary interpretation of the Supreme Court's jurisdiction."
This is the second conviction Carmen Zambelli has received from the Brazilian Supreme Court.
The Bolsonaro-backed congresswoman was arrested last month in Rome, Italy, while attempting to evade an arrest warrant related to another case in which she was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her involvement in the 2023 hacking of the National Council of Justice (CNJ).
Zambelli is listed as the mastermind of the cyberattack that led to a false arrest warrant against Judge Alexandre de Moraes, in which she collaborated with hacker Walter Delgatti, the perpetrator of the crime.
After fleeing to Italy using her dual nationality, the Brazilian government formally requested her extradition on June 11, a process that was channeled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Italian government. However, the congresswoman intends—under her dual nationality—to remain in the European country, where she arrived from the United States after crossing the Brazilian border into Argentina.
