The Brazilian justice system requests that the police question Bolsonaro for instigating the coup acts in January

Confrontation between the security forces and followers of Bolsonaro, on January 8 in Brasilia. TON MOLINA (AFP)

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will be questioned by the Brazilian Federal Police in the coming days for allegedly having encouraged the coup acts last January in Brasilia, when thousands of his followers violently stormed the National Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace.

Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes gave this Friday a ten-day period for the police to question the far-right leader "to clarify the responsibility of the masterminds and the people who instigated the coup acts of January 8," the Court reported in a statement.

The request for Bolsonaro to be questioned was presented by the Prosecutor's Office a few days after the coup attempt, but the judge could not evaluate it until now because Bolsonaro had been in the United States since December 30.

After his return to Brazil on March 30, and without the legal shield that the presidency gave him, all the processes against Bolsonaro are back on track.

The judge believes that listening to the former president is "essential to fully clarify the acts investigated."

What weighs the most against him is a tweet from January 10, when the country was still in shock over what happened, in which Bolsonaro insisted on his arguments that the elections were a fraud.

He posted a video questioning the reliability of the electoral system.

Bolsonaro deleted it a few hours later, fearing the repercussions, but now it is the basis of this process, regardless of the rhetoric that he maintained throughout practically his entire term and that he reinforced in the electoral campaign.

The Supreme Court affirms that with this tweet "supposedly it would have incited the perpetration of crimes against the rule of law."

The request by the Prosecutor's Office to investigate Bolsonaro was motivated above all by that ephemeral tweet, but days later even more forceful indications appeared.

The police searched the house of his former Minister of Justice, Anderson Torres, who on January 8 was the head of security in the Government of the Federal District, and found the draft of a decree that would allow Bolsonaro to annul the powers of the Superior Electoral Court (the body that proclaims the results of the elections), which would allow it to reverse the result of the polls.

Problems have been accumulating for Bolsonaro since he set foot in Brasilia after returning from his lethargy in Florida.

He was first questioned in another case, in which he is accused of misappropriating jewelery given away by the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

This Thursday, the Prosecutor's Office asked that he be sentenced for having committed abuse of power, understanding that he took advantage of his position as president to attack the voting system and benefit electorally.

The main piece of evidence in this case is a meeting he held with dozens of ambassadors to spread lies about the electoral process.

Of all the judicial fronts that he has open, this is the most advanced, and if he is convicted, Bolsonaro could be disqualified for eight years, which means that he would not be able to stand in elections.

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