Former Bolsonarist Justice Minister Anderson Torres was arrested in Brazil on Saturday January 14, and former President Jair Bolsonaro is himself directly targeted for his possible role in the ransacking of federal institutions in the capital, Brasilia. .
Mr Torres, who was Brasilia’s security secretary at the time of the January 8 violence, was arrested upon arrival at Brasilia airport as part of the investigation into the rampage, local media reported, as he returned from the United States to appear in court. Mr. Torres, who claims his innocence, is suspected of collusion with the rioters, accused of having fomented a remake of the assault on the American Capitol on January 6, 2021.
This arrest comes the day after the announcement by the judge of the Federal Supreme Court, Alexandre de Moraes, of the inclusion, as requested by the general prosecutor’s office, of the former far-right head of state in his investigation aimed at discover the possible instigators of this violence.
“Public incitement to the execution of a crime”
Mr. Bolsonaro, narrowly beaten by the left-wing candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the October presidential election, “carried out a public incitement to the commission of a crime” posting a video on social media “challenging the regularity of the 2022 presidential election”explained the prosecution in a press release.
Mr. Bolsonaro, who has been in the United States since the end of December, had also been singled out on Friday for excessive expenses during his mandate, for example 20,000 euros disbursed at once in a modest restaurant in northern Brazil or 10,000 euros in a bakery the day after his son’s wedding.
Account statements of the presidential credit card over his four years in office (2019-2022) were published on an official website of the Lula government, which has begun to lift a secrecy imposed for a hundred years by his predecessor on thousands of official documents.
“A putschist chain”
Before Mr Torres returned on Saturday, the current justice minister, Flavio Dino, had considered issuing an arrest warrant. He is implicated after the discovery of a three-page document found at his home: he planned for the federal government to take control of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which oversees the smooth running of the ballot, “to ensure the preservation and restoration of transparency and to approve the regularity of the electoral process for the presidential election of 2022”. A measure considered unconstitutional by many jurists. In practice, the intention would have been to annul Lula’s election.
The presidential decree – which never saw the light of day – provided for the creation of a “electoral regulatory commission” to replace the TSE, headed by a majority of members from the Ministry of Defense (eight out of seventeen). The document is not dated, but Mr. Bolsonaro’s name is at the end, in a space provided for his signature.
“While thirty-three million people suffered from hunger, they were preparing a coup d’etat”left-wing senator Randolfe Rodrigues, leader of the parliamentary bloc of the Lula government in the Upper House, tweeted on Friday. “It shows that what we saw on January 8 was not an isolated act. [Le projet de décret] is one of the links in a putschist chain”Mr. Dino said on Thursday evening.
Federal police told AFP they could not comment on an ongoing investigation. Mr Torres had said on Thursday evening on Twitter that this draft was “probably in a pile of documents supposed to be destroyed in due course” and claimed that his disclosure was out of context. The former minister had held the post of head of security for the federal district of Brasilia since January 2, but had gone on vacation shortly after.
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