Brazil’s federal police have arrested seven prime navy cops who’re accused of helping right-wing rioters through the Jan. 8 assaults on authorities buildings within the capital, Brasilia
ByCARLA BRIDI Related Press
FILE – Supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro sit in entrance of a line of navy police inside Planalto Palace after storming the official office of the president in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. Brazil’s federal police on Aug. 18, 2923 arrested seven senior navy cops accused of helping right-wing rioters through the Jan. 8 assaults on authorities buildings. (AP Picture/Eraldo Peres, File)
The Related Press
BRASILIA, Brazil — Brazil’s federal police on Friday arrested seven senior navy cops accused of helping right-wing rioters through the Jan. 8 assaults on authorities buildings within the capital, Brasilia.
Prosecutors say textual content messages obtained from the officers’ cell phones present Brasilia’s navy police have been conscious of the attackers’ intentions. Not solely did the officers fail to stop the assaults, say prosecutors, however they assisted the rioters of their efforts to oust President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and reappoint former President Jair Bolsonaro in a coup.
The officers haven’t been charged.
Amongst these arrested Friday is Klepter Rosa Gonçalves, common commander of the navy police of Brasilia. The police additionally detained three different individuals and dispatched 16 search and seizure warrants.
Prosecutors say navy officers knew that the protesters meant to assault the capital and unfold false details about the legitimacy of the nation’s digital voting system.
“There was (an) alignment of ideology — and functions — between the officers and those that pleaded for an intervention of the armed forces,” reads the report by Brazil’s lawyer common.
Lula unseated Bolsonaro by a razor-thin margin in October, and even earlier than his Jan. 1 inauguration, supporters of Bolsonaro have been already camped across the military’s headquarters in Brasilia, protesting Lula’s victory and calling for the intervention of the armed forces.
On Jan. 8, rioters bypassed safety barricades and stormed Congress, the Supreme Courtroom and presidential palace, regardless of calls from the nation’s Intelligence Company to strengthen safety within the three buildings.
Dozens of attackers have been arrested in reference to the riots in addition to some former authorities officers, together with Anderson Torres, Bolsonaro’s former justice minister and public safety secretary on the time.
5 of the officers arrested Friday had testified earlier this 12 months throughout particular committee periods to analyze the Jan. 8 riots.
The arrests come as Bolsonaro faces a number of legal investigations and allegations, together with that he obtained money from sale of two luxurious watches he obtained as presents from Saudi Arabia whereas in workplace.
In June, a panel of judges concluded Bolsonaro abused his energy by casting unfounded doubts on the digital voting system and barred him from operating for workplace once more till 2030.
