Brazil’s Supreme Court to investigate Jair Bolsonaro’s role in capital riots
- The former president allegedly encouraged anti-democratic protests that ended in the storming of government buildings by his supporters in Brasilia
- The Supreme Court has already ordered the arrest of Bolsonaro’s former justice minister, Anderson Torres, who was in charge of public security in the capital
Brazil’s Supreme Court agreed on Friday to open an investigation into former president Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly encouraging anti-democratic protests that ended in the storming of government buildings by his supporters in Brasilia.
“Public figures who continue to cowardly conspire against democracy trying to establish a state of exception will be held accountable,” said Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who agreed to the request by federal prosecutors to launch the probe.
Bolsonaro, who is currently in the United States, will be investigated by prosecutors for possible “instigation and intellectual authorship of the anti-democratic acts that resulted in vandalism and violence in Brasilia last Sunday,” the top public prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The Supreme Court had already ordered the arrest of his former justice minister, Anderson Torres, for allowing the protests to take place in the Brazilian capital after he assumed responsibility for Brasilia’s public security.
Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters vandalised the Supreme Court, Congress and presidential palace last weekend, seeking to provoke chaos and a military coup that would oust Lula and restore the far-right leader to power.
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Bolsonaro left Brazil for the United States on the eve of the end of his term, avoiding passing the presidential sash to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, his leftist rival who won the October election, at his inauguration.
Torres, who is in Florida, has said he plans to return to Brazil to turn himself in, while Bolsonaro, who is also in Florida, said on social media he will bring forward his return to the country.
Justice Minister Flavio Dino told a news conference he would wait until next week to re-evaluate Torres’ case, indicating that an effort to request his extradition could happen if the former minister did not turn himself in.
The arrest warrant against Torres was issued by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who removed Brasilia’s security chief from his post just hours after the rampage.
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On Thursday, police found a draft decree in Torres’ house that appeared to be a proposal to interfere in the result of the October election that Bolsonaro lost.
Torres claimed the document was among others in a stack that was being thrown out. He said they were “leaked” to Folha de S.Paulo newspaper in his absence to create a “false narrative”.
Justice Minister Dino said he had made no requests to the United States regarding Bolsonaro.
The political party Bolsonaro belongs to, the right-wing Liberal Party (PL), meanwhile, decided to strengthen its team of lawyers in preparation for the defence of the former president, a party official said.
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Bolsonaro supporters storm Brazil’s Congress and presidential palace
Bolsonaro faces several investigations for anti-democratic statements he made as president, including repeated claims that the election system was open to fraud.
PL party leaders now fear he will be held responsible for Sunday’s storming of government buildings that left a trail of destruction.
While they do not think he will face arrest, they fear he could be declared ineligible to run in the 2026 election, the official said.
