A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has authorised an investigation into whether former president Jair Bolsonaro incited the January 8th riot in the nation’s capital, as part of a broader crackdown to hold responsible parties to account.
According to the text of his ruling, Justice Alexandre de Moraes granted the request from the prosecutor-general’s office, which cited a video Mr Bolsonaro posted on Facebook two days after the riot.
The video claimed Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was not voted into office, but rather was chosen by the Supreme Court and Brazil’s electoral authority.
Prosecutors in the recently formed group to combat anti-democratic acts argued earlier on Friday that, although Mr Bolsonaro posted the video after the riot, its content was sufficient to justify investigating his conduct beforehand.
Mr Bolsonaro deleted it the morning after he first posted it.
Otherwise, he has refrained from commenting on the election since his October 30th defeat.
He repeatedly stoked doubt about the reliability of the electronic voting system in the run-up to the vote, filed a request afterward to annul millions of ballots cast using the machines and never conceded.
He has taken up residence in an Orlando suburb since leaving Brazil in late December and skipping the January 1st swearing-in of his leftist successor, with some Democratic lawmakers have urging president Joe Biden to cancel his visa.
Following the justice’s decision late on Friday, Mr Bolsonaro’s lawyer Frederick Wassef said in a statement that the former president “vehemently repudiates the acts of vandalism and destruction” from January 8th, but blamed supposed “infiltrators” of the protest — something his far-right backers have also claimed.
Brazilian authorities are investigating who enabled Mr Bolsonaro’s radical supporters to storm the Supreme Court, Congress and presidential palace in an attempt to overturn results of the October election.
Targets include those who summoned rioters to the capital or paid to transport them, and local security personnel who may have stood aside to let the mayhem occur.
Much of the attention thus far has focused on Anderson Torres, Mr Bolsonaro’s former justice minister, who became the federal district’s security chief on January 2nd and was in the US on the day of the riot.
Mr De Moraes ordered Mr Torres’ arrest this week and has opened an investigation into his actions, which he characterised as “neglect and collusion”.
In his decision, which was made public on Friday, Mr de Moraes said that Mr Torres fired subordinates and left the country before the riot, an indication that he was deliberately laying the groundwork for the unrest.
The court also issued an arrest warrant for the former security chief and he must return within three days or Brazil will request his extradition, Justice Minister Flavio Dino said on Friday.
“If by next week his appearance hasn’t been confirmed, of course we will use mechanisms of international legal cooperation. We will trigger procedures next week to carry out his extradition,” Mr Dino said.
Mr Torres has denied wrongdoing, and said on January 10 on Twitter that he would interrupt his vacation to return to Brazil and present his defence.
Three days later, that has yet to occur.
