Brazil’s federal police have arrested seven high army law enforcement officials who’re accused of aiding right-wing rioters in the course of 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 army 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 army law enforcement officials accused of aiding right-wing rioters in the course of the Jan. 8 assaults on authorities buildings. (AP Photograph/Eraldo Peres, File)
The Related Press
BRASILIA, Brazil — Brazil’s federal police on Friday arrested seven senior army law enforcement officials accused of aiding right-wing rioters in the course of 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 army 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, normal commander of the army police of Brasilia. The police additionally detained three different folks and dispatched 16 search and seizure warrants.
Prosecutors say army 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 people who pleaded for an intervention of the armed forces,” reads the report by Brazil’s legal professional normal.
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 research the Jan. 8 riots.
The arrests come as Bolsonaro faces a number of prison investigations and allegations, together with that he acquired money from sale of two luxurious watches he acquired 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.
