The Brazilian Federal Police have announced that the nephew of former President Jair Bolsonaro is under investigation in connection with the January 8 attack on the government building in Brasilia.
Leonardo Rodriguez de Jesus, also known as Leo Indio, was the first member of Bolsonaro’s family to be publicly targeted in an investigation.
His home was raided in a series of attacks on Friday, part of an ongoing investigation into the perpetrators behind the attacks led by Bolsonaro supporters.
“Today, the federal police are executing 11 preventive arrest warrants and 27 search and seizure warrants against coup plotters and terrorists,” Brazil’s Minister of Justice Flavio Dino said on Twitter on Friday. posted. “The authority of law is greater than the extremists”
On January 8th, de Jesus posted a photo and video from Brasilia’s Three Powers Plaza. There, hundreds of far-right demonstrators had gathered to protest the inauguration of left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a week earlier.
Some protesters had called on the military to bring Bolsonaro back to power after he lost a tough run-off election to Lula in October. The mob pushed aside security his barricades and stormed buildings representing his three branches of government (Parliament, Supreme Court and Planalto Presidential Palace), causing significant damage.
In a selfie posted on his social media, de Jesus stands red amidst protesters, which he attributes to tear gas. He accused the police of targeting demonstrators, writing:
Officials have called the Jan. 8 events the worst attack on the Brazilian government since it returned to democracy in the 1980s.
Brazil’s Supreme Court, headed by Judge Alexandre Demorais, has since issued warrants to search the homes and offices belonging to various individuals, including Brasilia governor Ibanez Rocha, whom Demoraies has suspended for 90 days.
Federal police have previously said the raids were aimed at identifying those who “participated in, funded and facilitated” anti-democratic protests. Crimes against democracy and involvement in criminal gangs.
Justice Minister Dino praised the police investigation and called the protesters “coup makers”.
De Jesus has previously used social media platforms to create false accusations about the October presidential election and far-right protests, including unsubstantiated claims that the events of January 8 were infiltrated by violent leftists. We were sharing information.
In 2022, De Jesus ran for office and lost the race to become a federal congressman.
However, he maintains a personal and professional relationship with Bolsonaro and his sons, most notably Carlos Bolsonaro, a Rio de Janeiro city councilor and head of his father’s digital business.
Carlos Bolsonaro had hired Jesus as an aide in Rio de Janeiro before Jesus moved to Brasilia. There, de Jesus took a position as a member of the senator’s cabinet team and as an adviser to Bolsonaro’s conservative Liberal Party in the Senate.
However, he lost his job after media reports revealed that he worked as a “phantom employee” and collected checks but did not show up for work.
Since 2021, officials in Rio de Jesus have been investigating de Jesus after allegations surfaced that another son of the former president, Flavio Bolsonaro, sent him money from the city council’s cabinet. De Jesus also allegedly received public funds for his rent.
Brazil’s Supreme Court has requested de Jesus be placed in preventive custody for his role in the Jan. 8 attacks, but police have so far not arrested him. De Jesus declared he had no money to pay for his attorney to appeal his order.
Friday’s raid is the latest broadside in a series of ongoing measures planned to dismantle Brazil’s rebels.
On Wednesday, Supreme Court Judge Alexandre Demorais sent 1.2 million Brazilian Brazilian dollars to messaging platform Telegram for failing to suspend accounts linked to misinformation among pro-Bolsonaro supporters, as mandated by a court order. Fined Real ($234,865).
And on January 21, Lula dismissed Army Secretary General Julio Cesar de Arruda for disobeying government orders to clear the camp of pro-Bolsonaro supporters who participated in the January 8 attacks.
