Brazil is getting ready to ask the US to extradite Bolsonaro ally

Anderson Torres, the minister of justice under Bolsonaro, is now in Florida, but the Supreme Court of Brazil has ordered his arrest.

Brazilian authorities have given a former justice minister and ally of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro three days to return home or face extradition from the United States as they pursue people they believe were involved in a far-right riot in the capital last weekend.

The Brazilian Supreme Court has ordered Anderson Torres’ arrest because of what happened in Brasilia on January 8. That day, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters attacked Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace to protest the election results from October.

Torres has said that he is innocent and promised to go to court to defend himself, but he and Bolsonaro are still living in Florida, US.

The Brazilian government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, which has promised to look into anyone who assisted in funding and planning the attack on the nation’s democratic institutions, stated on Friday that it has not yet submitted a request to the US for Torres’ extradition.

However, Flavio Dino, the minister of justice, told reporters that “we would employ channels of international legal cooperation, of course, if by next week [Torres’s] appearance hasn’t been guaranteed. Next week, we’ll start the process for carrying out his extradition.

READ ALSO: Bolsonaro supporters are targeted in Brazil, and new protest fails

On the day of the incident, Torres—who had just been sworn in as Brasilia’s security chief on January 2—was in the US. But after the attack, he was fired from his position after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is in charge of the riot inquiry, accused him of “neglect and collaboration.”

Followers of the former far-right leader started angry protests and blockades in Brasilia just a few weeks after Lula, who led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, barely beat Bolsonaro in a run-off election in October.

Bolsonaro misrepresented the vulnerability of Brazil’s electronic voting system for months, fueling concerns that he might challenge the results. This week, there were also claims made about the former president’s campaign that he helped start the incident.

That criticism has been disputed by Bolsonaro, who left for the US two days before Lula was ushered in as president on January 1. On Sunday, he tweeted that while nonviolent protests are a necessary component of democracy, damage to and invasions of public institutions are “exceptions to the norm.”

But after Bolsonaro released a video that “called into question the legitimacy of the presidential elections in 2022,” federal prosecutors asked the Supreme Court on Friday to add him to a list of people who are being investigated.

Torres might be prosecuted for dereliction of duty for neglecting to launch an investigation into the document’s author or disclose its existence, according to Mario Sergio Lima, a political analyst with Medley Advisors, who spoke with The Associated Press.

Torres said on Twitter that the document was probably found with other papers that were going to be shredded and that it was taken out of context to back up false stories that were meant to hurt his reputation.

The previous military police head and governor of the federal district are also under investigation by the Supreme Court, which was made public on Friday. After the violence, both were fired from their jobs.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES AND AL JAZEERA