By David Biller and Carla Bridi -
The Associated Press
A federal Supreme Court minister on Friday authorized the inclusion of former President Jair Bolsonaro in his investigation to determine who incited the riots on January 8 in the Brazilian capital, part of a series of measures taken to hold the parties involved accountable.
According to the text of his ruling, Judge Alexandre de Moraes granted the request of the Attorney General's Office, which cited a video that Bolsonaro posted on Facebook two days after the revolt.
The video claimed that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva did not get the job by majority vote, but rather was chosen by the Federal Supreme Court and the Brazilian electoral authority.
Prosecutors from the newly formed group to combat anti-democratic acts claimed hours earlier that although Bolsonaro released the video after the riots, its content was enough to warrant investigating his conduct before they did.
The former president deleted it the morning after he posted it.
In this file photo, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro looks ahead before delivering a speech from his official residence at the Alvorada Palace, on November 1, 2022, in Brasilia, Brazil.Eraldo Peres / AP
Other than that, Bolsonaro has refrained from commenting on the election since his defeat on October 30.
In the run-up to the election, he repeatedly raised doubts about the reliability of the country's electronic voting system, and later petitioned to annul millions of votes cast on those machines, never acknowledging that he lost.
Bolsonaro has been living in an Orlando suburb since he left Brazil at the end of December, and did not attend his successor's inauguration on January 1.
Some US lawmakers have called on President Joe Biden to cancel his visa.
["It's not a surprise to anyone." Why is the coup assault in Brazil similar to that of the United States Capitol?]
Following the judge's decision late on Friday, Bolsonaro's lawyer, Frederick Wassef, said in a statement that the former president "vehemently repudiates the acts of vandalism and destruction" on January 8, but blamed alleged "infiltrators" in the protest, something that his far-right supporters have also affirmed.
The statement also says that Bolsonaro "never had any relationship or participation with these spontaneous social movements."
Brazilian authorities are investigating who allowed radical Bolsonaro supporters to raid the Federal Supreme Court, Congress and the presidential palace in an attempt to overturn the October election results.
The role of people who paid to transport the rioters to the capital and of security personnel who may have turned a blind eye and allowed chaos to ensue is being examined.
Until now much of the attention has focused on Anderson Torres, Bolsonaro's former justice minister, who became the federal district's security chief on January 2 and was in the United States the day the riots occurred.
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De Moraes this week ordered Torres arrested and has opened an investigation into his actions, which he said were characterized by "negligence and collusion."
In his decision, which was released Friday, de Moraes said Torres fired his subordinates and left the country before the riots, an indication that he was deliberately preparing the ground for unrest.
The highest 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 Flávio Dino said on Friday.
“If his presentation has not been confirmed by next week, of course we will use international cooperation mechanisms.
We will start procedures next week to carry out his extradition," Dino said.
Torres has denied having committed any crime, and on January 10 declared on Twitter that he would interrupt his vacation to return to Brazil and present his defense.
Three days later he hasn't.
[Biden is pressured to expel Bolsonaro from the US after the coup attack in Brazil]
The minister referred to a document that the Brazilian federal police found after searching Torres's home: the draft of a decree that would have seized control of Brazil's electoral authority and potentially revoked the result of the elections.
The origin and authenticity of the unsigned document are unknown, and it is not known whether Bolsonaro or his subordinates did anything to implement the measure, which would have been unconstitutional, according to analysts and the Brazilian Academy of Electoral and Political Law.
But the document "will appear in the police investigation, because it more fully reveals the existence of a chain of people responsible for the criminal acts," Dino said, adding that Torres will have to inform the police who wrote it.
By failing to launch an investigation against the author of the document or report its existence, Torres could be accused of breach of duty, said Mario Sérgio Lima, a political analyst at Medley Advisors.
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Torres said on Twitter that the document was likely found in a pile meant to be shredded, and that it was leaked out of context, fueling false narratives aimed at discrediting him.
Dino told reporters on Friday morning that no link between the unrest in the capital and Bolsonaro has been established so far.
The former governor of the federal district and the former head of the military police are also targets of the Federal Supreme Court investigation that was released on Friday.
Both were ousted after the revolt.
Separately, the popular social media accounts of several prominent right-wing figures were suspended in Brazil on Friday night in response to a court order, which journalist Glenn Greenwald obtained and explained in detail in a live broadcast on social media. .
The order, also issued by Judge De Moraes, targeted six social media platforms and set a two-hour window to block accounts or otherwise face fines.
The accounts belong to a digital influencer, a YouTuber who was recently elected a federal legislator, a podcast host, and an evangelical pastor and senator-elect, among others.