Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Wednesday rejected an appeal by the defense of Anderson Torres, who served as justice minister under former President Jair Bolsonaro, and decided to keep him under preventive detention.
Mr. Torres is currently in jail for his alleged role in facilitating the January 8 riots. At the beginning of the year, he took office as the top Brasília state security official. He traveled to Florida just days before hordes of far-right Bolsonaro supporters stormed and ransacked the buildings housing all three branches of government.
Mr. Torres returned to Brazil and turned himself in to the police on January 14.
A report published by the Justice Ministry showed that Mr. Torres was informed of plans about the attack two days in advance, including threats that public buildings would be invaded.
Brazil’s current deputy justice minister, Ricardo Cappelli, has said there was an “operational failure” in the security apparatus in Brasília, because even though intelligence pointed to the possibility of attacks, police were not given detailed orders to contain the demonstrators.
After arresting Mr. Torres, the Federal Police found the draft of a putschist decree in his home. The draft, albeit unconstitutional, aimed at giving Mr. Bolsonaro powers to overturn the election.
Although the draft was never used, Mr. Bolsonaro did say just before leaving office that he “did all he could” to revert the electoral results “within the four lines of the Constitution.”
The draft decree was mentioned by Justice Moraes in his decision to keep Mr. Torres under arrest. He acknowledged the argument of the Prosecutor-General’s Office that, if freed, Mr. Torres could hinder the investigations and the collection of evidence.
Separately, Justice Moraes notified Mr. Torres’ lawyers that he has been subpoenaed by the select committee on the January 8 riots in the Brasília state-level assembly to testify next week, on March 9.
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