Brazil Protests: Arrest Ordered For Top Public Officials After Bolsonaro Supporters Storm Congress

Brazil's judicial authorities have ordered the arrest of top public officials and more than 1,500 supporters of Bolsonaro were detained after they stormed key government buildings.

Former President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro

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Brazil's judicial authorities have ordered the arrest of top public officials and more than 1,500 supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro were detained after they stormed key government buildings last week.

A former commander of the military police has been arrested, reported BBC citing local media. Others include Brasília's former public security chief Anderson Torres and those "responsible for acts and omissions" leading to the riots, the attorney general's office said. However, Torres denied any role in the riots, the report added. Earlier, police commander Colonel Fábio Augusto was sacked after the incident.

Of the estimated 1,500 people arrested in the riot and brought to the police academy, around 600 of them were moved to other facilities where police officials have five days to formally charge them.

On Tuesday, the federal intervenor in public security accused Torres of "a structured sabotage operation". The report quoted Ricardo Cappelli, who was in charge of the security in Brasília, saying there was a "lack of command" from Torres before government buildings were stormed.

Lula's inauguration on 1 January was "an extremely successful security operation," Cappelli told CNN. What changed before Sunday was that, on 2 January, "Anderson Torres took over as Secretary of Security, dismissed the entire command and travelled", he said. "If this isn't sabotage, I don't know what is," Cappelli added.

On its part, Torres dismissed the allegation saying he deeply regretted the "absurd hypotheses" that he played any part in the riots. He said the incident that happened at the time when he was on a family holiday, was lamentable and said it was "the most bitter day" of his personal and professional life.

The newly elected President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a leftist who is at the helm of the office after defeating Bolsonaro in an October vote, promised to bring those responsible for the violence to justice.

Meanwhile, Bolsonaro was released from a hospital near Orlando, Florida on Tuesday after he was admitted, reported news agency Reuters citing a close to the Bolsonaro family. Bolsonaro left the country for Florida 48 hours before his term ended and got admitted a day after hundreds of his supporters rampaged through key government buildings in the capital Brasilia.

Bolsonaro was admitted with intestinal pains related to a stabbing he suffered during the 2018 election campaign, his wife, Michelle, said on Instagram. 

On Tuesday, he told a Brazilian media outlet that he would push up his return home, originally scheduled for late January, according to the news agency AP report. “I came to spend some time away with my family but these weren’t calm days,” Bolsonaro told CNN’s Portuguese-language affiliate in Brazil. “First, there was this sad episode in Brazil and then my hospitalization.”