BRASILIA, Jan 14 ― Brazilian federal prosecutors yesterday asked the Supreme Court to investigate former President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly encouraging anti-democratic protests that ended in the storming of government buildings by his supporters in Brasilia.
Bolsonaro will be investigated for possible “instigation and intellectual authorship of the anti-democratic acts that resulted in vandalism and violence in Brasilia last Sunday,” a statement posted on the top public prosecutor's website said.
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 vandalized 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
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.
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 beef up its team of lawyers in preparation for the defence of the former president, a party 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 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 aid. ― Reuters
