The Brazilian Prosecutor’s Office asked the Supreme Court this Friday to investigate former President Jair Bolsonaro for his possible participation as the mastermind of Sunday’s assaults by his followers on the offices of the Presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court.
The Attorney General of the Republic requested that the far-right leader be included in the list of those investigated for having incited the anti-democratic acts on Sunday with which the most radical Bolsonaristas intended to promote a coup against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
According to the petition of the Prosecutor’s Office to the Federal Supreme Court, "Bolsonaro would have publicly incited the practice of crime" by posting a video on January 10 again questioning the regularity of the 2022 presidential election in which he was defeated by Lula.
The video to which the Prosecutor’s Office refers was published two days after the incidents on Sunday, but, given the negative repercussions, he quickly turned it off from his Facebook account.
In the controversial video, a voter assures that Lula was not chosen by the people but by the electoral court.
The deputy attorney general of the Republic, Carlos Frederico Santos, who coordinates the strategic group that investigates the anti-democratic attacks, alleged that, although the video was published two days after the "episodes of violence and vandalism, possible illegal behavior has to be investigated".
"The existence of an evidentiary connection between the facts contained in this petition and the objective of the investigation, which is broader in scope, is not denied. For this reason, the global investigation of the facts practiced before and after January 8, 2023 by the defendant is justified."Santos claimed.
In the same petition, signed by several prosecutors but without the signature of the Attorney General of the Republic, Augusto Aras, the body asked the highest court to order Facebook to adopt the necessary measures to preserve the video published and deleted by Bolsonaro.
According to a statement from the Prosecutor’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office has so far requested seven investigations from the Supreme Court for the attacks and acts of violence by the most radical followers of Bolsonaro, who do not recognize Lula’s victory in the presidential elections and defend a coup.
These investigations are divided between those that try to identify the executors, the financiers, the masterminds and the instigators of the assaults, as well as the public authorities that were conniving.
In such requests, the Prosecutor’s Office accuses those involved of crimes of terrorism, criminal association, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état, threat and persecution.
Authorities have so far arrested some 1,800 accused of being part of the horde of radical Bolsonaristas that invaded and vandalized the headquarters of the three powers for nearly four hours in an attempt to overthrow Lula.
Bolsonaro is being investigated in four other criminal proceedings opened by the Supreme Court, but all of them are in the initial phase and no charges have been filed against the former president, who has been in the United States since December 30.