Senate approves equating militias and factions with terrorists

The Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ) of the Senate approved this Wednesday (10) a bill that typifies crimes committed on behalf of or in favor of organized groups as terrorist acts. Bill (PL) 3,283/2021 does not need to go through the plenary of the House and can proceed to the Chamber of Deputies. It will only be analyzed by senators in plenary session if an appeal is presented in this regard. The project equates the actions of organized criminal groups, such as militias and factions, with terrorist activity. The goal is to differentiate them from criminals who act individually to ensure greater punishment, with greater penalties. “The militias and other criminal associations have exposed the Brazilian population to the widespread terror that the Anti-Terror Law seeks to curb. Thus, it becomes necessary to bring the anti-terrorism legislation closer to that intended for organized crime, avoiding selective state repression and aimed only at minor delinquents”, explained the author of the project, Styvenson Valentim (Podemos – RN). Penalties The text provides for imprisonment of five to ten years for anyone who constitutes, organizes, integrates, maintains or funds a paramilitary organization, private militia, group or squadron, for the purpose of committing a crime. The penalty also provides for the payment of R$ 2,000 to R$ 3,000 in a fine per day. Under current law, the penalty is one to three years in prison. Penalties of 12 to 30 years in prison are foreseen for maintaining a territorial monopoly or parallel power with the use of violence or threat and for creating obstacles to the free movement of people to exercise this parallel power in a given region. Exceptions The criminalization does not apply to the individual or collective conduct of people in political manifestations, social, union, religious, class or professional category movements, directed by social purposes or claims. It also does not apply to acts with the aim of contesting, criticizing, protesting or supporting, with the aim of defending constitutional rights, guarantees and freedoms, without prejudice to the criminal classification contained in the law. * with information from the Senate Agency

Agência Brasil