Federal police in Brazil have introduced that the nephew of former President Jair Bolsonaro is underneath investigation in reference to the January 8 assault on authorities buildings in Brasilia.
Leonardo Rodrigues de Jesus, often known as Leo Índio, is the primary member of Bolsonaro’s household to be publicly focused within the investigations.
His dwelling was searched in a sequence of raids on Friday, a part of an ongoing inquiry into the perpetrators behind the assault, which was led by pro-Bolsonaro supporters.
“In the present day, the Federal Police are finishing up 11 preventive arrest warrants and 27 search and seizure warrants towards coup plotters and terrorists,” Brazil’s Justice Minister Flávio Dino posted on Twitter on Friday. “The authority of the regulation is larger than the extremists.”
On January 8, de Jesus posted pictures and movies from the Three Powers Plaza in Brasilia, the place lots of of far-right demonstrators had converged to protest the inauguration of left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva one week prior.
Among the protesters had known as for the army to revive Bolsonaro to energy, following his defeat in a decent October run-off towards Lula. The mob pushed previous safety barricades, storming buildings that symbolize three branches of presidency — Congress, the Supreme Court docket and the Planalto presidential palace — and inflicting important injury.
In a selfie posted to his social media, de Jesus stands red-eyed amid the protesters, a reality he attributes to tear fuel. He accused the police of concentrating on the demonstrators, writing: “Search for the actual hooligans and likewise the cowards disguised as patriots.”
Officers have known as the occasions of January 8 the worst assault on Brazil’s authorities since its return to democracy within the Nineteen Eighties.
Brazil’s Supreme Court docket, led by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, has since issued warrants to go looking the properties and places of work belonging to a spread of people, together with Ibaneis Rocha, the governor of Brasilia, whom de Moraes has positioned on a 90-day suspension.
The federal police have beforehand mentioned the raids are aimed toward figuring out these “who participated in, funded or fostered” the anti-democracy protests. Eventual expenses might embody crimes towards democracy and prison affiliation.
Dino, the justice minister, has applauded the police investigations, calling the protest individuals “coup-mongers”.
De Jesus had beforehand used his platform on social media to share false details about the October presidential election and the far-right protests, together with the baseless declare that the occasions of January 8 had been infiltrated by violent leftists.
In 2022, de Jesus additionally ran for public workplace, shedding his marketing campaign to develop into a Federal District councillor.
He has, nonetheless, maintained private {and professional} relationships with Bolsonaro and his sons, significantly Carlos Bolsonaro, a metropolis council member for Rio de Janeiro and head of his father’s digital operations.
Carlos Bolsonaro had employed de Jesus as an aide in Rio de Janeiro, earlier than de Jesus moved to Brasilia. There, de Jesus took positions as a part of a senator’s cupboard workforce and as an adviser to Bolsonaro’s conservative Liberal Celebration within the Senate.
He misplaced his place, nonetheless, after media reviews revealed that he served as a “phantom worker”, gathering paycheques however failing to indicate up for work.
Since 2021, officers in Rio de Janeiro have additionally been investigating de Jesus after allegations surfaced that Flavio Bolsonaro — one other one of many sons of the previous president — had transferred cash to de Jesus from his cupboard on the town council. De Jesus additionally allegedly acquired public funds for his lease.
Brazil’s Supreme Court docket has requested that de Jesus be put in preventive detention for his position within the January 8 assault, however police haven’t arrested him to date. De Jesus has declared he lacks the cash to pay for his legal professionals to enchantment the order.
Friday’s raids are the newest broadside in an ongoing sequence of measures designed to dismantle anti-government forces in Brazil.
On Wednesday, Supreme Court docket Justice Alexandre de Moraes fined the messaging platform Telegram 1.2 million Brazilian reais ($234,865) for failing to droop accounts linked to misinformation amongst pro-Bolsonaro supporters, as mandated by a courtroom order.
And on January 21, Lula dismissed a military chief, Normal Julio Cesar de Arruda, for failing to obey authorities orders to clear a camp of pro-Bolsonaro supporters who participated within the January 8 assault.