2023-09-13 21:49:05
SAO PAULO (AP) — Judges at Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court on Wednesday began weighing whether to convict those accused of breaking into government offices on Jan. 8 in an alleged attempt to forcibly restore former President Jair Bolsonaro to office. .
The case of Aécio Lúcio Costa Pereira, 51 years old and a supporter of Bolsonaro, is the first to be analyzed.
In January, cameras in the Senate captured him wearing a T-shirt calling for a coup d’état and recording a video in which he praised other people who had also broken into the building. Nearly 1,500 people were arrested on the day of the riots, although most have been released.
Pereira denied having committed any improper action, and alleged that he participated in a peaceful demonstration of unarmed people.
Three other defendants were also tried Wednesday in the same case, but the final decision on each of them might last for the next few days.
The rioters refused to accept the right-wing president’s defeat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose inauguration took place a week before the revolt. The leftist Lula also governed Brazil from 2003 to 2010, defeating Bolsonaro by the narrowest margin in Brazil’s modern history.
The pro-Bolsonaro agitators caused enormous damage to Congress, the Supreme Federal Court and the presidential palace. They jumped over security barricades, climbed onto roofs, broke windows and invaded the three buildings, which were believed to be largely empty the weekend of the incident.
Lula has accused Bolsonaro of encouraging the revolt.
The incident recalled the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. Various politicians warned for months that there was a possibility of a similar uprising in Brazil, given that Bolsonaro had raised doubts regarding the reliability of the nation’s electronic voting system, without offering evidence of this.
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