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 his supporters storming government buildings in Brasilia.
“Public figures who continue to cowardly conspire against democracy by trying to establish a state of exception will be held to account,” said sternly Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who accepted the request of 80 federal prosecutors to launch the investigation. In recent years, the president “occupied a prominent position in the echo chamber of disinformation” and he “contributed to undermining the confidence of a large part of the population in Brazilian civic integrity”, stormed the 80 prosecutors in their request.
“Intellectual paternity of anti-democratic acts”
Bolsonaro, who is currently in Florida, US, will be investigated by prosecutors for possible “instigation and intellectual authorship of the undemocratic acts that led to acts of vandalism and violence in Brasilia last Sunday”. , said the public prosecutor’s office in a press release, recalling that two days after the riots, Jair Bolsonaro had broadcast a video – since deleted – “questioning the regularity of the presidential election of 2022”.
The Supreme Court had previously ordered the arrest of former Bolsonaro justice minister Anderson Torres for allowing protests in the Brazilian capital after assuming responsibility for Brasilia’s public security.
VIDEO. Brazil: Unleashed Bolsonaro supporters ransack Brazilian places of power
Six days ago, a week after President Lula’s inauguration, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters vandalized the Supreme Court, Congress and the presidential palace, seeking chaos conducive to a military coup. Their goal: to bring down President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and restore the far-right leader to power.
The former president “never had the slightest connection or participation with these movements”, his lawyers said in a statement sent to AFP, attributing the violence in Brasilia to “infiltrated” elements.
Anderson Torres, who is also in Florida, said he plans to return to Brazil to surrender. On Thursday, police found a draft decree at his Brazilian home that appeared to be a proposal to interfere in the election outcome. Torres defended himself: the document was among other documents in a pile that was going to be thrown away, he argued, blaming their disclosure to the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper in his absence to create a “false narrative”. Lula-appointed Justice Minister Flavio Dino told a news conference he would wait until next week to reassess Torres’ case, saying an extradition request could be filed if the former Minister did not surrender.
Jair Bolsonaro has said on social media that he will bring forward his return to Brazil. The political party to which Bolsonaro belongs, the right-wing Liberal Party, has decided to strengthen its team of lawyers for the defense of the former president. The former president is already the subject of several investigations for anti-democratic statements he made during his tenure, including repeatedly claiming that the electoral system was open to fraud.
