Federal Police Arrest Activist in Investigation of Anti-Democratic Rallies in Brasília

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Federal Police arrested extremist Sara Fernanda Giromini, who has adopted the alias Sara Winter, and are serving warrants for the arrest of five others investigated for engaging in anti-democratic activities. Authorized by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the arrest is temporary – it is valid for five days and may be extended for an additional five.

Sara Giromini is head of the ‘300 do Brasil’ (Brazil’s 300) group in support of President Jair Bolsonaro. The group describes itself as a right-wing organized militancy and was responsible for a camp, with about 30 people, set up on Brasília’s Ministerial Esplanade in early May and demobilized last weekend.

The other five people whose arrest was authorized by the STF are also connected to the group. According to the investigation, they are suspected of organizing and raising funds for antidemocratic actions and crimes against the National Security Law.

In an interview with BBC Brasil, Sara Giromini acknowledged the existence of weapons among the members. “There are members of our group who are CACs [acronym for Collector, Sniper and Hunter], others who have weapons duly registered with the appropriate bodies. These weapons serve to protect the camp members and have nothing to do with our militancy,” she said at the time.

In asking for the camp to be dismantled, the Federal District Prosecutor’s Office described Brazil’s 300 group as an armed militia, which is banned by the Constitution.

In April 2017, Sara published a photo on her social media alongside Jair Bolsonaro. At the time, Bolsonaro was still a federal deputy.

On May 13th, representatives of Brazil’s 300 group headed to the Alvorada Palace and stood at the site reserved for the President’s supporters. Bolsonaro said that day that the hardest thing is to remain in office and govern. And Sara answered that “we are your base”. “We are the militancy you need. We are soldiers at your disposal.”

Last Saturday, June 13th, members of this group took part in a rally where protesters set off fireworks against the STF building. And on May 31st, Sara led a demonstration with references to neo-Nazi and white American supremacist groups outside the STF.

In a video shot outside the STF in May, she urged protesters to camp across the street from the home of STF Justice Alexandre de Moraes. “We know where Alexandre de Moraes lives, we’ll camp right outside. People from São Paulo, get out of ALESP [São Paulo State Legislative Assembly], camp outside Alexandre de Moraes’ house,” she said.

Following this video, there was a rally outside the building where the Justice lives in São Paulo, and two people were arrested for the crimes of disobedience, noncompliance with preventive health measures and inciting crime.

Renata Tavares, Sara Giromini’s attorney, reached the police station at around 9:30 AM on Monday and said her client “is very relaxed”. “As a defense, we’re going to petition for a writ of habeas corpus. We are going to fight in every way because we can see that this is a political imprisonment,” she said.

Inquiry into anti-democratic actions

Sara’s arrest occurred within the inquiry investigating the financing of anti-democratic protests. The Office of the Prosecutor General (PGR) petitioned for the arrest warrants on Friday, June 12th; the authorization was signed by Justice Moraes on Sunday, June 14th.

In April, when authorizing the opening of the investigation, Alexandre de Moraes said that “it is essential to ascertain the existence of organizations and funding schemes for anti-democracy demonstrations and the mass spreading of messages that attack the republican regime, as well as its forms of management, leadership, organization and diffusion aimed at undermining or endangering fundamental rights, the independence of the established powers and the democratic rule of law, resulting in the nefarious cloak of arbitrariness and dictatorship”.

The investigation occurs against the backdrop of rallies held throughout the country on April 19th, which included demonstrators advocating the closure of Congress, the STF and the re-edition of the AI-5, the institutional decree that hardened the military regime.

Among the targets of the current investigation are federal congressional deputies, which justifies the STF’s jurisdiction to investigate. President Jair Bolsonaro himself made a speech at one of the protests outside Army headquarters in Brasília. However, he is not among the PGR’s targets.

In recent months, several anti-democratic rallies have been staged throughout the country. On Saturday, June 13th, supporters of President Bolsonaro set off fireworks against the STF building.

The event lasted at least five minutes. The President’s supporters insulted the Court’s Justices, including the Chief Justice Dias Toffoli. In a threatening tone, they asked if the justices had understood the message and ordered them to prepare themselves. The group also insulted the Federal District governor, Ibaneis Rocha, who evicted them from the camp at the Ministries Esplanade.

On Sunday afternoon, ex-federal government official Renan Sena, who is also part of the 300 group, was arrested for slander and insult after releasing a video with insults against officials of the Three Powers and against governor Ibaneis Rocha. The ex-official was released after agreeing to return to court. Sena’s voice can also be heard in the video in which the group sets off fireworks against the Supreme Court building, according to the Civil Police.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes repudiated Sunday’s attacks on the democratic rule of law. “The STF will never bow to cowardly attacks from veritable criminal organizations financed by anti-democratic groups that disrespect the Federal Constitution, Democracy and the Rule of Law. The law will be rigorously applied and justice will prevail,” he posted on social media.

On May 30th, Sara Giromini led a demonstration with references to neo-Nazi and white American supremacist groups at the Ministries Esplanade in Brasília. The demonstrators marched at night dressed in black, wearing masks and wielding torches, shouting slogans against justice Alexandre Moraes, heading for the Three Powers Square outside the STF.

The demonstration videos posted on social media triggered reactions. Several people noticed the similarity with actions of the Klu Klux Klan supremacist group, which also used torches and masks.

After this incident, Sara was expelled from the Democrats Party (DEM), for which she ran, unsuccessfully, as a candidate for federal deputy from Rio de Janeiro in the 2018 elections.

Links with feminist movements

Currently a supporter of President Jair Bolsonaro and opposed to the feminist movement, in 2014 Sara filed a petition to revoke Bolsonaro’s mandate, when the President was serving as a member of Congress. At the time, he had declared that “he would not rape the ex-Minister Maria do Rosário because she wouldn’t deserve it”.

Sara became known years earlier, in 2012, when she was part of the Femen, a feminist group of Ukrainian origin that organized protests during the Eurocup.

Following in the footsteps of the Femen, in 2013 Sara also organized demonstrations against the holding of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. She was eventually arrested in one of the protests for public indecency and for calling police officers “murderers”.