Overview
- Alexandre de Moraes, who oversees the January 8 cases, on Saturday froze the law’s application until the full Supreme Court hears challenges from PSOL and Rede that question its constitutionality.
- The measure, dubbed the Sentencing Law, stops courts from stacking similar crimes, adds reductions when offenses happened in a crowd, and speeds moves to a semi-open regime.
- Experts say the change could shorten time in closed prison by two to four years for some defendants, including those sentenced for the January 8, 2023 attacks.
- Congress approved the change in December after debate over punishments tied to threats to the democratic order.
- President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vetoed it, lawmakers later overturned the veto, and Senate president Davi Alcolumbre promulgated it on Friday.
- Jair Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year, 3-month sentence for leading a coup plot and has been on home detention since March for health reasons.
- His lawyers filed a criminal review on Friday to try to void the verdict and asked to send the case to a panel that includes two justices he appointed, André Mendonça and Nunes Marques.
- Any early-release gains are on hold until the court rules, a pause that could shape the race five months before the vote and decide timelines for hundreds sentenced over January 8.