A Year On, Brazil High Court Judge Blames Bolsonaro For Jan 8 Riots

Brasília, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Jan, 2024) A year after Jair Bolsonaro supporters stormed the seat of power in Brazil, the senior justice on the country's Supreme Court says the far-right ex-president bears "unequivocal" responsibility for the unrest.

But Justice Gilmar Mendes says the court must now decide whether Bolsonaro is guilty of a crime for his alleged links to the January 8, 2023 riots, which stunned the world with striking echoes of the US Capitol invasion two years earlier.

"His political responsibility for January 8 is unequivocal," Mendes told AFP in an interview at his office in Brasilia ahead of the anniversary.

"His legal responsibility is still being examined in court."

Bolsonaro's arch-rival and successor, veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, had been in office just one week when tens of thousands of protesters overwhelmed security forces to storm the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court.

Alleging foul play in Bolsonaro's narrow loss in Brazil's bitterly divisive October 2022 elections, they smashed through doors and windows, vandalized priceless artworks and trashed the premises, urging the military to intervene to oust Lula.

Bolsonaro, who was in the United States at the time, denies responsibility.

But the Supreme Court is investigating allegations the polarizing ex-army captain instigated the riots, including with his repeated attacks on the credibility of the election system -- which already earned him an eight-year ban from running for public office, in a separate case.

Mendes says he thinks that before Bolsonaro left office, his government "had encouraged some sort of anarchy, especially among the police forces."

"I believe the military even refrained from removing the invaders because of (Bolsonaro's) encouragement," says the 67-year-old judge, who took his seat on the 11-member court in 2002.