Dias Toffoli denies semi-open regime request for Filipe Martins

Brazilian Supreme Court Minister Dias Toffoli has rejected a request from the defense of Filipe Martins to transition from a closed to a semi-open prison regime. Martins, a former international affairs advisor to Jair Bolsonaro, was sentenced to 21 years in prison by the Court’s First Chamber in December 2025 for his involvement in an attempted coup d'état.

Toffoli dismissed the petition as “manifestly inept and procedurally unintelligible.” The magistrate noted that the defense attempted to combine various legal demands, including sentence recalculation, regime progression, habeas corpus, and allegations of “fishing expedition” investigations, within a writ of mandamus that was unrelated to Martins’ criminal execution. That specific legal proceeding concerned the disqualification of a photographer by the January 8 Parliamentary Inquiry Commission.

Martins is currently serving his sentence at the Ponta Grossa Public Prison in Paraná. He was convicted of five crimes, including armed criminal organization, attempt to violently abolish the Democratic Rule of Law, and coup d'état. Prosecutors alleged that Martins helped draft the “coup minute,” a document intended to sustain Bolsonaro’s presidency through exceptional measures.