Lula defeated Bolsonaro by a narrow margin in a brutal election last year. (file)
Brazil:
Brazil’s former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro appeared before federal police on Wednesday to testify about anti-government riots by his supporters on January 8, a police source told AFP.
Bolsonaro is being investigated for his alleged role in plotting and inciting the riots that sought to overthrow his successor, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro, who returned to Brazil in late March after spending three months in Florida, has always denied involvement in the riots.
Bolsonaro arrived at the Federal Police Headquarters in Brasilia in a vehicle with tinted windows and made no statement to the press.
Lula, who previously led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, defeated Bolsonaro in a brutal, divisive election last October.
Thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace in Brasilia in January, a week after Lula took office.
In scenes reminiscent of the January 6, 2021 riots in Washington by supporters of former President Donald Trump – Bolsonaro’s political role model – they smashed offices, broke windows, vandalized artworks and ordered the military to oust Lula. asked to intervene.
Around 1,800 people have been arrested.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)