Anderson Torres, a former minister of justice and public security in Brazil who oversaw security during last week’s takeover of federal buildings in Brasilia, has been detained on suspicion of “omission” and “connivance.”
Upon arriving back in Brazil on Saturday from a vacation in Florida, the same US state that former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro had visited after losing the election to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Torres—who served as Bolsonaro’s justice minister—was detained.
When police searched his residence this week, the ex-minister claimed on Thursday that the evidence they produced was misinterpreted.
Torres’ arrest was mandated on Tuesday by Justice Alexandre de Moraes of the Brazilian Supreme Court. The specific accusations were not immediately clear, but Moraes noted Torres’ alleged “omission” and “connivance.”
The authorities would give Torres until Monday to return to Brazil or he would face extradition, according to Flavio Dino, the new justice minister.
Torres said on Twitter on Tuesday that he will break his vacation and go back to Brazil to report himself in after becoming aware of Moraes’ detention order.
Dino also verified the discovery of a draft decree at Torres’ residence that suggested emergency measures for the potential “correction” of the October election, which Lula narrowly won.
At the bottom of the draft decree, which is both undersigned and undated, is Bolsonaro’s name. The authorship, according to Dino, is unknown.
Torres said on Twitter that the draft was “likely” one of a number of files meant for destruction and that its contents had been “out of context” in order to “fuel false narratives” against him.
Numerous “Bolsonaristas” descended on government buildings this week, shattering windows and furniture, looting precious works of art, and spray-painting inscriptions advocating a military takeover.
Bolsonaro is being investigated by the Supreme Court for allegedly inciting the demonstrations.
According to a statement released on Friday by the top public prosecutor’s office, prosecutors will look into Bolsonaro for alleged “instigation and intellectual authorship of the anti-democratic activities that resulted in vandalism and violence in Brasilia last Sunday.”
Two days before the inauguration, Bolsonaro went for the United States, where he is still at now, and never acknowledged Lula’s victory in public.
