Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the preventive detention of former presidential adviser Filipe Martins. Three Federal Police officers carried out the warrant on Friday morning (2).
Martins had been under house arrest since last Saturday (27), following the arrest of Silvinei Vasques, former director of the Federal Highway Police (PRF), in Paraguay. Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the arrest of six people in total, including Filipe Martins, citing a generalized risk of flight, in addition to imposing precautionary measures such as a ban on access to social media.
According to Moraes, however, Martins allegedly accessed the LinkedIn platform to “search for third-party profiles,” which led to the decree of preventive detention.
“It is verified that Filipe Garcia Martins Pereira failed to comply with the precautionary measures imposed when he used his social networks, even knowing that he was prohibited from doing so. These circumstances alone demonstrate the defendant’s contempt for the imposed measures and for the legal system itself, since he does not respect the rules and does not comply with judicial decisions,” the justice wrote in the decision issued this Friday.
Denying the accusation, Martins’s defense stated that the former adviser’s social media accounts have been under the “exclusive custody of his lawyers” since February 8, 2024, and that he has not accessed them since April 2023.
The former adviser was sentenced by the STF’s First Panel to 21 years for attempted coup d’état for his participation in drafting the coup decree. Martins, however, denies the accusations. He was not yet serving the sentence definitively, as appeals were still pending.
In a statement, Martins’s defense said this was “yet another arrest without cause.” “Filipe Martins was exemplary in complying with the precautionary measures imposed, according to Justice Alexandre de Moraes himself,” said attorney Jeffrey Chiquini.
“In truth, today the STF is putting into practice what they have wanted since 2019, when Filipe Martins was selected as the leader of the so-called ‘cabinet of hatred.’ Today Alexandre de Moraes is putting into practice what he has always wanted: to arrest Filipe Martins. This is not a precautionary measure, it is a measure of revenge,” the lawyer said in a video sent to the press.
