Monitoring Desk
BRASILIA: A former minister under defeated Brazilian former president Jair Bolsonaro was arrested early Saturday in connection with last week’s sacking of government buildings, local media reported.
Bolsonaro’s last justice minister, Anderson Torres, was arrested when he arrived in the capital Brasilia from the United States (US), where both he and his former boss Bolsonaro were at the time of the riot.
Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters invaded government buildings in the capital on Sunday, breaking furniture and windows, destroying priceless works of art, and leaving graffiti messages asking for a military coup.
Over 2,000 rioters were detained after the incident, for which the full extent of the damage is still under calculation.
A Supreme Court judge announced Friday that former president Bolsonaro would be included in an investigation into the origins of the sacking, which was sparked by anger at Bolsonaro’s election defeat to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro raises questions over Brazil’s election system
Anderson Torres was wanted under a Supreme Court warrant for alleged collusion with the rioters and stands accused of omission in his most recent job as security chief for Brasilia.
On Friday, the new justice minister Flavio Dino said that authorities would give his predecessor until Monday to come back to Brazil or face extradition.
Flavio Dino also confirmed the discovery at Anderson Torres’ home of a draft decree proposing emergency steps for the possible rectification of the October election, which Lula da Silva won by a razor-thin margin.
The unsigned and undated draft bears Bolsonaro’s name at the bottom; however, Dino said the authorship was anonymous.
Anderson Torres said on Twitter that the document was possibly part of a pile of papers meant to be destroyed.
Dino said the contents of the draft had been taken “out of context” to “create false narratives” against him.
Bolsonaro came under probe Friday at the request of the office of the prosecutor general (PGR), which cited a video Jair Bolsonaro had posted “questioning the regularity of the 2022 presidential polls.”
In a note, Bolsonaro’s defense denied any involvement by the former president.
Bolsonaro “never had any participation or relationship in these movements,” the note stated, blaming the violence on “infiltrators.”
Jair Bolsonaro had for several years sought to cast doubt on the reliability of Brazil’s internationally appreciated election system and had suggested he would not accept a defeat.
Bolsonaro never publicly acknowledged Lula da Silva’s victory and left for the United States (US) — where he remains — two days before the inauguration.
