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Brasilia (AFP) – A former congressman allied with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro fired shots and threw grenades at police officers, wounding at least two, in a failed attempt to prevent his arrest, authorities said Sunday.
Former deputy Roberto Jefferson faced a prison order from the Federal Supreme Court (STF) for failing to comply with the terms of his house arrest, after attacking the president of the highest court on social networks.
“As I determined Justice Minister Anderson Torres, Roberto Jefferson has just been arrested,” Bolsonaro said in a video posted on his Twitter account.
“The treatment given to someone who shoots a police officer is that of a bandit. I express my solidarity with the police officers injured in the episode,” added the far-right president.
The Federal Police previously reported that upon making the arrest, in the city of Levy Gasparian, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, the requested individual “reacted” and two police officers “were injured by shrapnel from a grenade he threw.”
The two affected received medical attention and are in good condition, according to the authorities, who reinforced the police presence at the scene.
Bolsonaro had earlier repudiated the “armed action” of Jefferson, who lasted eight hours barricaded in his house and confirmed in a video posted on networks that he fired, although supposedly without the intention of injuring the agents.
But the president at the same time condemned the judicial investigations against the former legislator which, in his opinion, are carried out “without any support in the Constitution and without action by the Prosecutor’s Office.”
The head of state then ordered the presence of the Minister of Justice at the scene.
STF magistrate Alexander de Moraes had ordered Jefferson’s return to prison alleging various breaches of the terms of his house arrest.
He had recently attacked magistrate Carmen Lúcia, calling her a “witch” and a “prostitute”.
The armed incident occurs a week before the presidential ballot, which pits Bolsonaro against former leftist president Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ Da Silva, a favorite in the polls.
“The offenses against Carmen Lúcia cannot be accepted by anyone who respects democracy. They created a violent part of society. A machine to destroy democratic values. This generates behavior like the one we saw today,” Lula wrote on Twitter. , where he sympathized with the wounded.
The campaign has been marked by confrontations between Bolsonaro and his allies against decisions of the justice system as well as those of the electoral authority, which is chaired by Moraes. Also due to deep polarization and cases of political violence.
