Anderson Torres, the former Brazilian Minister of Justice under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro was “arrested on Saturday upon his arrival at Brasilia airport”.
Bolsonarist former Justice Minister Anderson Torres was arrested on Saturday January 14 and former President Jair Bolsonaro is himself directly targeted for his role in the ransacking of national institutions in Brasilia. Anderson Torres, who was Brasilia’s security secretary at the time of the January 8 violence, was arrested upon arrival at Brasilia airport as part of the investigation into the rampages.
Suspected of connivance with the rioters accused of having fomented a remake of the assault on the American Capitol on January 6, 2021, Anderson Torres, who claims his innocence, was “arrested on Saturday upon arrival at Brasilia airportas part of the investigation into the rampages, the federal police announced.
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The arrest comes the day after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Morles announced the inclusion, as requested by the General Prosecutor’s Office, of former far-right head of state Jair Bolsonaro in his investigation. aimed at discovering the possible instigators of this violence.
Jair Bolsonaro, narrowly beaten by left-wing candidate Luiz Inacio, Lula da Silva in the October presidential election, “carried out a public incitement to the commission of a crime“by posting a video on social networks”calling into question the regularity of the presidential election of 2022“, explained the prosecution in a press release. This video was published two days after the invasion of the headquarters of the presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court by thousands of bolsonarists, then deleted, recalled the prosecution. But she could, according to him, bringa proof link“justifying”a global investigation into acts carried out before and after January 8, 2023by Jair Bolsonaro.
Lavish spending
The former president “never had any connection or involvement with these movements“, said his lawyers in a statement sent to AFP, attributing the violence in Brasilia to elements “infiltrators“. Jair Bolsonaro, who has been in the United States since the end of December, had also been pinned on Friday for lavish expenses during his mandate, such as the 20,000 euros disbursed at once in a modest restaurant in northern Brazil or the 10,000 euros in a bakery the day after her son’s wedding.
Account statements for the presidential credit card over his four years in office (2019-2022) have been published on an official website of the Lula government, which has begun to lift a secrecy imposed for 100 years by his predecessor on thousands of official documents. Before his return on Saturday, the current Minister of Justice Flavio Dino had said he was considering an arrest warrant against Anderson Torres.
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He is implicated after the discovery of a three-page document found at his home: he planned for the federal government to take control of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which oversees the smooth running of the ballot, “to ensure the preservation and restoration of transparency, and approve the regularity of the electoral process for the 2022 presidential election“.
A measure considered unconstitutional by many jurists. In practice, the intention would have been to annul Lula’s election.
“Rebellion»
The presidential decree – which never saw the light of day – provided for the creation of a “electoral regulation commissionto replace the TSE, headed by a majority of members from the Ministry of Defense (8 out of 17). The document is not dated, but the name of Jair Bolsonaro is at the end, on a space provided for his signature.
“While 33 million people were starving, they were plotting a coupleft-wing senator Randolfe Rodrigues, leader of the Lula government’s parliamentary bloc in the upper house, tweeted on Friday. “This shows that what we saw on January 8 was not an isolated act. (The draft decree) is one of the links in a putschist chain“, had already declared Flavio Dino Thursday evening.
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