Brasilia.- A former Minister of Jair Bolsonaro was arrested this Saturday in Brasilia in connection with the violent attack on the capital on January 8, for which the far-right former President is also under the magnifying glass of the Prosecutor’s Office, reported the Federal Police.
Anderson Torres, former Minister of Justice, was acting as Secretary of Security in the capital when thousands of supporters of the far-right leader devastated the headquarters of public powers on the day that the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was serving a week in office.
He is being investigated for alleged “intentional collusion” with those who attacked the heart of the country’s democratic institutions.
“He was arrested upon disembarking at the Brasilia airport and sent to custody, where he will remain at the disposal of justice,” the Federal Police said in a short statement.
“The investigations continue in secret,” added the institution.
The arrest warrant for Torres is signed by the Federal Supreme Court judge, Alexandre de Moraes, who also authorized on Friday, at the request of the Attorney General’s Office, to include Bolsonaro in the investigations that are looking for the instigators and masterminds of the attack.
The Prosecutor’s Office based its request on the statements made by the far-right leader in a video posted on social networks.
The former president questioned the October electoral result, in which he lost to Lula by less than two percentage points.
Published on January 10, and deleted on January 11, said the Prosecutor’s Office, the video is a piece that even days after the attacks proves a connection to the events.
Bolsonaro’s defense denied any involvement in the vandalism in Brasilia for which the authorities have already arrested almost 2,000 people.
“He (Bolsonaro) never had any relationship or participation in these movements,” says the former president’s lawyers, who hold “infiltrators” responsible.
The interrogation request of Bolsonaro, who is in the United States, will be analyzed “in a timely manner,” Moraes wrote in his ruling.
On January 8, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters, dissatisfied with Lula’s victory, invaded and looted the offices of the Presidency, the National Congress and the Federal Supreme Court.
Torres was dismissed from the capital’s Security Secretariat for an “act of sabotage,” said Vice Minister of Justice Ricardo Cappelli.
According to the deputy minister, Torres modified an important part of the command of the Brasilia Security Secretariat and took vacations before the attacks.
When the justice determined his arrest, he maintained his innocence on social networks and announced that he would return to Brazil to appear before the authorities.
He landed from the United States, where Bolsonaro continues, this Saturday morning, one day after the current Minister of Justice, Flavio Dino, promised to activate international cooperation mechanisms if he did not return voluntarily in the next 48 hours.
The operation at the airport was carried out discreetly, preserving the image of Torres, who is also a police officer.
Dino reported that Torres will also have to give explanations in relation to a draft presidential decree, without signature but with Bolsonaro’s name, which was intended to alter the result of the 2022 elections.
