Former President Jair Bolsonaro’s Justice Minister Anderson Torres was arrested by Brazilian federal police amid an investigation into his involvement in riots that upended the nation’s capital on Jan. 8.
Torres was arrested on Saturday after arriving in Brasilia from a vacation in the U.S., according to GloboNews. Torres, whose arrest was ordered by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, has denied any involvement in the attacks that damaged government buildings and tested the leadership of new President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Rodrigo Roca, a lawyer for Torres, wasn’t immediately available to comment on the arrest.
After the transfer of power to Lula on Jan. 1, Torres had been appointed Secretary of Public Security of the Federal District, but was dismissed by Governor Ibaneis Rocha after less than a week as protesters calling for military intervention stormed the presidential palace, congress and the top court buildings in Brasilia. Hours later, Moraes suspended Rocha from his post for 90 days while responsibility for the riots is investigated.
On Tuesday, Brazil’s Federal Police found at Torres’ house a draft of a decree to unconstitutionally change the outcome of the October elections. The former justice minister wrote on his Twitter account that the document was probably among piles of papers that would be discarded.
Officials have been closing in on members of Bolsonaro’s previous administration as they probe the violent, anti-government protests. On Friday, Moraes accepted a request presented by Brazilian prosecutors to investigate Bolsonaro for the alleged incitement of the riots.
