SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s federal police said on Wednesday they were conducting new searches and arrests as part of an investigation into the Jan. 8 riots in Brasilia, in which supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings.
The police, according to a statement, were executing 3 arrest warrants and 10 search and seizure warrants issued by the Supreme Court in 4 states: Sao Paulo, Paraná, Minas Gerais and Goiás.
The raids are the seventeenth phase of an operation launched in mid-January to identify those involved, financed or encouraged the unrest, in which a mob invaded and ransacked Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court.
In January, far-right Bolsonaro supporters invaded and vandalized buildings a week after leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office, protesting his victory in October elections and calling for a military coup.
On Wednesday, police did not release the names of those targeted but said they were under investigation for crimes of “violent abolition of the rule of law, coup, nuisance damage, criminal association, incitement, destruction and damage to property. “”Especially the property.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court voted to convict the other three people prosecuted for the riots, sentencing them to at least 14 years in prison.
Bolsonaro himself has been the subject of a congressional investigation into the Jan. 8 uprising and several police investigations overseen by the Supreme Court.
In June, Brazil’s most sensible electoral court barred him from holding public office until 2030 over his conduct in last year’s tough election, when he summoned ambassadors to make baseless accusations about the country’s e-voting system.
(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo, editing by Bernadette Baum)
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