Brazil: Supreme court approves investigation into Bolsonaro – ex-justice minister arrested

Storming Brazil’s Congress
Supreme Court approves investigation into Bolsonaro – Ex-Justice Minister arrested

Brazil’s Attorney General accuses Jair Bolsonaro of “incitement and intellectual authorship”. His lawyers firmly rejected the allegations.

© Bruna Prado/AP/DPA

The riots by thousands of supporters of the ex-president of Brazil were perceived as an attack on democracy. The Supreme Court has now approved investigations into Jair Bolsonaro. The former justice minister was arrested on his return.

After the violent storming of the presidential palace in Brasília, investigations are now underway against ex-president Jair Bolsonaro himself. Brazil’s Supreme Court upheld the Attorney General’s request to put the far-right politician on a list of suspects to be investigated in the January 8 violence. The Attorney General accuses Bolsonaro of “incitement and intellectual authorship”. His lawyers firmly denied the allegations.

The chief judge responsible, Alexandre de Moraes, said he would grant the prosecutor’s request and put ex-President Bolsonaro on the investigation list. The attorney general’s office had previously stated that by releasing a video “calling into question the legality of the 2022 presidential election,” Bolsonaro “publicly incited the commission of a crime.”

The video was released two days after Bolsonaro supporters violently stormed the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court and was later deleted. The attorney general’s office argued that although the video was taken after the riots, it could serve as “conclusive evidence” warranting “a full investigation into the defendant’s actions before and after January 8, 2023.”

With Bolsonaro’s signature: Plans to “correct” the election results have apparently been found

In a statement to the AFP news agency, Bolsonaro’s lawyers assured him that he “never had the slightest connection” to those responsible for the storming of state institutions. Lawyers blamed “infiltrated” actors for the January 8 violence.

A former Brazilian minister from the Bolsonaro government was also arrested on Saturday. According to media reports, ex-Justice Minister Anderson Torres was arrested in the capital Brasília on his return from the USA. There was an arrest warrant from the Supreme Court against him for alleged collusion with the rioters. He has maintained his innocence and said he would return to Brazil to face the authorities.

Last Sunday, hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters in the capital broke into the congress building, the presidential palace and the seat of the Supreme Court, causing hours of havoc there. Her anger was vented at the election victory of left-wing politician Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who narrowly defeated Bolsonaro in a runoff and has been in office since the beginning of the year.

The protesters do not recognize Lula’s election victory. Bolsonaro himself did not do this either and left for the USA before the transfer of office.

On Thursday, the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper reported that a document had been found in the home of Anderson Torres, a confidant of Bolsonaro and former Justice Minister, with plans to “correct” the election results, which, however, were not implemented.

The three-page draft provides for Bolsonaro’s government to take control of the Supreme Electoral Court – apparently to then annul Lula’s election victory. Such an approach is classified by numerous lawyers in the country as unconstitutional. At the bottom of the undated document is Bolsonaro’s name with space for his signature. Torres criticized that the quotes from the document had been taken out of context.

Bolsonaro’s spending with the official presidential credit card has sparked outrage

Meanwhile, Bolsonaro’s spending with the official presidential credit card, which was published by Lula’s government, also caused outrage. According to this, for example, around 217,000 euros were spent during Bolsonaro’s official Christmas holidays in 2019, 2020 and 2021. A modest restaurant in Boa Vista in the northern Amazon state of Roraima, where the most expensive dish costs nine euros, was debited the equivalent of around €20,000 in one fell swoop.

Bolsonaro boasted several times during his tenure that, unlike his predecessors, he had “not spent a single cent” on the president’s credit card.

yks / Ramon Sahmkow and Marcelo Silva da Sousa
AFP

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