Security forces operate as supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro exhibit against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, outside Brazil’s National Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, January 8, 2023.
Adriano Machado | Reuters
Brazil’s Supreme Court agreed on Friday to open an investigation into former President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly encouraging anti-democratic protests that led to the storming of presidency buildings by his supporters in Brasilia.
“Public figures who proceed to cowardly conspire against democracy trying to determine a state of exception can be held accountable,” said Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who agreed to the request by federal prosecutors to launch the probe.
Bolsonaro, who’s currently in the USA, can be investigated by prosecutors for possible “instigation and mental authorship of the anti-democratic acts that resulted in vandalism and violence in Brasilia last Sunday,” the highest public prosecutor’s office said in an announcement.
The Supreme Court had already ordered the arrest of Bolsonaro’s former justice minister, Anderson Torres, for allowing the protests to happen within the Brazilian capital after he assumed responsibility for Brasilia’s public security.
Hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters vandalized the Supreme Court, Congress and presidential palace last weekend, in search of to impress chaos and a military coup that might oust President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and restore the far-right leader to power.
Having lost Brazil’s October election to Lula, Bolsonaro left Brazil for the USA on the eve of the tip of his term, avoiding passing the presidential sash to his leftist rival at his inauguration.
Torres, who like Bolsonaro is in Florida, has said he plans to return to Brazil to show himself in. Bolsonaro said on social media he’ll move forward his return to Brazil.
Tons of of supporters of Brazil’s far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro broke through police barricades and stormed into Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court Sunday, in a dramatic protest against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s inauguration last week.
Evaristo Sa | Afp | Getty Images
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 occur if the previous minister doesn’t turn himself in. The arrest warrant against Torres was issued by de Moraes, who removed Brasilia’s security chief from his post just hours after the rampage.
On Thursday, police found a draft decree in Torres’ house that seemed to be a proposal to interfere in the results of the election. Torres claimed the document was amongst 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.”
Dino said he has made no requests to the USA regarding Bolsonaro.
The political party to which Bolsonaro belongs, the right-wing Liberal Party (PL), decided to beef up its team of lawyers in preparation for the defense of the previous president, a celebration official told Reuters.
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 can be held chargeable for Sunday’s storming of presidency buildings. While they don’t think he’ll face arrest, they fear he could possibly be declared ineligible to run within the 2026 election, the official said.
