Barbados Times

Barbados, Caribbean & World News
Tuesday, Mar 21, 2023

Brazil prepares to seek extradition of Bolsonaro ally from US

Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of Bolsonaro’s Justice Minister Anderson Torres, who remains in Florida.
Brazilian authorities have given a former justice minister and ally of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro three days to return to the country or face extradition from the United States, as the government pursues those it says are responsible for a far-right riot in the capital last weekend.

The Brazilian Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of Anderson Torres in relation to the riot in Brasilia on January 8, when thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace to overturn October’s election results.

Torres has denied any wrongdoing and said he would turn himself in to present his defence, but he and Bolsonaro remain in the US state of Florida.

The government of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, which has pledged to investigate those who helped finance and plan the attack on the country’s democratic institutions, said on Friday it had not yet presented a US extradition request for Torres.

Justice Minister Flavio Dino told reporters, however, that “if by next week [Torres’s] appearance hasn’t been confirmed, of course, we will use mechanisms of international legal cooperation. We will trigger procedures next week to carry out his extradition”.

Torres, who was sworn in as Brasilia’s security chief on January 2, was in the US on the day of the riot. But he was removed from his post following the attack as Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is running the investigations into the riot, accused him of “neglect and collusion”.

The violence in Brasilia came just weeks after Lula, who previously served as Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2010, narrowly defeated Bolsonaro in an October election run-off, setting off angry protests and blockades by the former far-right leader’s supporters.

For months, Bolsonaro falsely claimed that Brazil’s electronic voting system was vulnerable to fraud, raising fears he planned to contest the results. The ex-president’s campaign also led to accusations this week that he helped spur the riot.

Bolsonaro, who left for the US two days before Lula was sworn in as president on January 1, has rejected that criticism. He tweeted on Sunday that a peaceful protest is part of democracy but vandalism and invasion of public buildings are “exceptions to the rule”.

Still, federal prosecutors on Friday asked the Supreme Court to include Bolsonaro on a list of people under investigation after he posted a video “questioning the regularity of the 2022 presidential elections”.

By doing so, “Bolsonaro would have publicly incited the commission of a crime”, the prosecutor general’s office said in a statement.

The video was posted two days after the riot and later deleted. But the office said that even though it came after the uprising, it may serve as “a probative connection” that justified “a global investigation of the acts performed before and after January 8, 2023 by the defendant”.

Dino, Brazil’s justice minister, told reporters earlier that no connection has yet been established between the capital riot and Bolsonaro.

Meanwhile, Brazil’s police raided Torres’s home earlier this week, discovering a draft of an order that would have taken control of Brazil’s electoral authority and potentially overturned the election.

The document’s origins remain unclear, and Dino said Torres would need to share information about where it originated.

By failing to initiate a probe against the document’s author or report its existence, Torres could be charged with dereliction of duty, Mario Sergio Lima, a political analyst at Medley Advisors, told The Associated Press news agency.

Torres said on Twitter that the document was probably found in a pile along with others intended for shredding and that it was leaked out of context to feed false narratives aimed at discrediting him.

The federal district’s former governor and former military police chief are also targets of the Supreme Court investigation made public on Friday. Both were removed from their positions after the riot.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Barbados Times
Close
0:00
0:00
Credit Suisse's Scandalous History Resulted in an Obvious Collapse - It's time for regulators who fail to do their job to be held accountable and serve as an example by being behind bars.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman tours potential migrant housing in Rwanda as asylum deal remains mired in legal challenges
Paris Rioting vs Macron anti democratic law
'Sexual Fantasy' Assignment At US School Outrages Parents
Credit Suisse to borrow $54 billion from Swiss central bank
Russian Hackers Preparing New Cyber Assault Against Ukraine
Jeremy Hunt insists his Budget will get young parents and over-50s back into work
If this was in Tehran, Moscow or Hong Kong
TRUMP: "Standing before you today, I am the only candidate who can make this promise: I will prevent World War III."
Mexican President Claims Mexico is Safer than the U.S.
A brief banking situation report
Lady bites police officer and gets instantly reaction
We are witnessing widespread bank fails and the president just gave a 5 min speech then walked off camera.
Donald Trump's asked by Tucker Carlson question on if the U.S. should support regime change in Russia?.
Silicon Valley Bank exec was Lehman Brothers CFO
In a potential last-ditch effort, HSBC is considering a rescue deal to save Silicon Valley Bank UK from insolvency
BBC Director General, Tim Davie, has apologized, but not resigned, yet, following the disruption of sports programmes over the weekend
Elon Musk Is Planning To Build A Town In Texas For His Employees
The Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse effect is spreading around the world, affecting startup companies across the globe
City officials in Berlin announced on Thursday that all swimmers at public pools will soon be allowed to swim topless
Fitness scam
Market Chaos as USDC Loses Peg to USD after $3.3 Billion Reserves Held by Silicon Valley Bank Closed.
Senator Tom Cotton: If the Mexican Government Won’t Stop Cartels from Killing Americans, Then U.S. Government Should
Banking regulators close SVB, the largest bank failure since the financial crisis
The unelected UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, an immigrant himself, defends new controversial crackdown on illegal migration
Man’s penis amputated by mistake after he’s wrongly diagnosed with a tumour
In a major snub to Downing Street's Silicon Valley dreams, UK chip giant Arm has dealt a serious blow to the government's economic strategy by opting for a US listing
It's the question on everyone's lips: could a four-day workweek be the future of employment?
Is Gold the Ultimate Safe Haven Asset in Times of Uncertainty?
Spain officials quit over trains that were too wide for tunnels...
Don Lemon, a CNN anchor, has provided a list of five areas that he believes the black community needs to address.
Hello. Here is our news digest from London.
Corruption and Influence Buying Uncovered in International Mainstream Media: Investigation Reveals Growing Disinformation Mercenaries
Givenchy Store in New York Robbed of $50,000 in Merchandise
European MP Clare Daly condemns US attack on Nord Stream
Former U.S. President Carter will spend his remaining time at home and receive hospice care instead of medication
Tucker Carlson called Trump a 'demonic force'
US Joins 15 NATO Nations in Largest Space Data Collection Initiative in History
White House: No ETs over the United States
U.S. Jet Shoots Down Flying Object Over Canada
Being a Tiktoker might be expensive…
SpaceX, the private space exploration company, made a significant breakthrough in their mission to reach space.
China's top tech firms, including Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, NetEase, and JD.com, are developing their own versions of Open AI's AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT
This shocking picture, showing how terrible is the results of the earthquake in Turkey
President Joe Biden delivered the 2023 State of the Union Address , in order to help Americans that missed the 2022 speech, do not have internet, and suffer from short memory.
The desk of King Carlos Alberto of Sardinia has many secret compartments
Today's news from Britain - 9th February 2023
The five largest oil companies in the West generated combined profits of nearly $200 billion in 2022, which has led to increased calls for governments to impose tougher windfall taxes
2 earthquakes in Turkey killed over 2,300 people
Powerful Earthquake Strikes Turkey and Syria, Killing More Than 1,300 People.
×