The Arns Commission files a Constitutional Lawsuit to the Federal Supreme Court on the National Security Law

The Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns Commission for the Defense of Human Rights filed an amicus curiae or "friend of the court" request in a lawsuit filed by the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) regarding the National Security Law with the Federal Supreme Court (STF).

The Claim of Non-Compliance with a Fundamental Precept (ADPF) No. 799 deals with some provisions of the law that “threaten freedom of expression, insofar as they could lead to persecution of opponents and critics of the government”.

The Arns Commission's request was prepared in partnership with Sepúlveda Pertence's law firm, whose founding partner is former Federal Supreme Court president José Paulo Sepúlveda Pertence, and with lawyer Juliana Vieira dos Santos, legal coordinator of the Liberdade Network (Rede Liberdade, in Portuguese).

The brief calls attention to two articles of the National Security Law that threaten the precepts of democracy: the criminalization of “incitement to subversion of the political or social order” (Article 23) and the prohibition to "slander and defame the President of the Republic” (Article 26) In addition to the amicus curiae brief, the Arns Commission intends to present memoranda reporting recent situations of application of the Nation Security Law and to offer oral statements through its legal representatives in the case, during the trial of the aforementioned Claim of Non-Compliance with a Fundamental Precept.

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Photo: Marcello Casal Jr. / Agência Brasil