Although ministers Flávio Dino (Justice) and Alexandre de Moraes (Federal Supreme Court) are using the terms “terrorism” and “terrorist” in interviews and documents, the attacks on public buildings by Bolsonarists last Sunday (8) are not easily covered by the Brazilian anti-terrorism law.
The explanation is that law 13,260 provides that terrorist acts will be considered crimes with roots in “xenophobia, discrimination or prejudice based on race, color, ethnicity and religion” —political motivation is not on the list. Therefore, some specialists prefer not to call the Brasilia coup plotters terrorists.
If they were in Germany, however, Bolsonaristas who participated in the destruction march at the headquarters of the Three Powers would be indicted as such. So says the Federal Office for the Protection of the German Constitution (BfV), the internal intelligence body that last month routed the Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich) group for planning to seize power in the country by force.
The BfV does not comment on political situations in other countries, not even hypothetically, but, questioned by the Sheet about his concept of terrorism, the answer could not be clearer.
“According to the definition of the BfV and internal intelligence services, terrorism is the continued struggle for political objectives that will be carried out through attacks on the life, physical integrity and property of other people,” the institution replied.
The German definition further states that attacks qualify as terrorism if they are committed “especially by means of serious crimes such as those mentioned in section 129, paragraph 1, of the German Penal Code”.
The section cited is entitled “Formation of Terrorist Organizations”. Among the possibilities for these organizations to commit other crimes, such as murder or kidnapping, the text establishes that it is enough to participate in groups “with the intention of destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of the State” to receive a prison sentence that varies between one and ten years.
There’s more: there’s an additional five years or a fine if someone “illegally destroys, in whole or in part, a building, ship, bridge, dam, a built road, a railroad or any other building belonging to another”. The same punishment can be applied in case of destruction of other people’s work material, such as computers or vehicles.
It should be noted that, for Germany, twice as bad as destroying buildings —a fact that is being seen by many as the main crime of Bolsonaristas— is participating in a group whose objective is to discredit the elections and subvert their results. , which in Brazil occurred on a large scale before, during and after the election won by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).
The director of the BfV, Thomas Haldenwang, talks about the use of the German flag by extremists in ways similar to what is seen in Brazil in relation to the shirt of the Brazilian soccer team. “Our national symbols have been kidnapped by the enemies of liberal democracy, and that worries me. We need to get them back,” the German told The New York Times.
Haldenwang has put an entire far-right party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), under surveillance. The decision generated controversy and many discussions in the country. The acronym appealed, but lost, and surveillance is still in effect.
“One of the main attributions of the BfV is the monitoring of efforts directed against the free democratic base order”, says the institution, referring to a multi-stage process.
“Reliable information is needed to keep the Federal Republic of Germany safe from terrorism and political and religious extremism. German domestic intelligence services obtain most of their information from open and generally accessible sources, but the use of covert techniques also It is indispensable for the collection of information.”
As for the controversy over how far the tentacles of the newly created body can or should go, the BfV claims that it maintains “strict standards” in the execution of its work. “The BfV’s oversight is more rigorous than that of almost any other public authority. This is also true of federal states’ domestic intelligence services. There are multiple levels and mechanisms to ensure that powers are not misused and that competencies are not exceeded”.
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