Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 15: A former minister in Jair Bolsonaro’s deposed cabinet was detained early on Saturday in connection with the looting of government properties.
On Sunday, tens of thousands of so-called ‘bolsonaristas’ assaulted the capital’s government buildings, smashed windows and furniture, destroyed precious works of art, and scrawled inscriptions asking for a military takeover.
The precise magnitude of the damage caused by the incidents, for which more than 2,000 rioters were imprisoned, is still being tallied.
A probe into the reasons behind Bolsonaro’s dismissal, which was motivated by resentment over the far-right leader’s electoral loss to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was announced by a Supreme Court judge on Friday.
When he returned in Brasilia from the United States, where both he and his former employer were at the time of the attempted coup, Anderson Torres, Bolsonaro’s final justice minister, was detained.
For alleged ‘collusion’ with the riots, he was wanted by the Supreme Court, and in his most recent position as the capital’s security commander, he is charged with ‘omission.’ Flavio Dino, Lula’s new justice minister who took Torres’ post, announced on Friday that the government would give Torres until Monday to return to Brazil or face extradition.
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The newly appointed minister also acknowledged the finding of a draught decree at Torres’ residence that suggested urgent measures for the potential ‘correction’ of the election Lula narrowly won in October.
Bolsonaro’s name appears at the bottom of the unsigned, undated document, but Dino claimed it was unclear who wrote it.
