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Brazil's Bolsonaro testifies over capital riots / Photo: © AFP
Brazil's Bolsonaro testifies over capital riots
Former Brazilian far-right president Jair Bolsonaro appeared before federal police on Wednesday to testify over anti-government riots by his supporters in January, a police source told AFP.
Bolsonaro is being investigated for his alleged role in masterminding and instigating the riots that sought the overthrow of 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 his involvement in the riots.
Bolsonaro arrived at the federal police headquarters in Brasilia in a vehicle with tinted windows.
Lula, who previously led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, narrowly beat Bolsonaro in a fractious, divisive election last October.
Thousands of Bolsonaro's supporters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace in Brasilia on January 8, a week after Lula took office.
In scenes reminiscent of the January 6, 2021 riots in Washington by supporters of ex-president Donald Trump -- Bolsonaro's political role model -- they trashed offices, smashed windows, vandalized artworks and called for the military to intervene to oust Lula.
Some 1,800 people have been arrested.
Bolsonaro left Brazil for Florida on December 30, two days before he was due to hand over the presidential sash to Lula.
Just over a week later, his supporters ran riot in Brasilia, having easily broken through a security cordon.
On January 13, Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes opened an investigation into Bolsonaro's alleged involvement.
Prosecutors released a video showing Bolsonaro contesting the election results, just two days after the riot.
A parliamentary committee of inquiry is due to be set up soon in Congress to shed light on the events of January 8.
Bolsonaro was previously interviewed by police on April 5 in relation to an accusation that he tried to illegally import millions of dollars worth of jewelry gifted by Saudi Arabia.
A source close to the former president told AFP that he denied that accusation.
Bolsonaro is the subject of at least 16 other investigations in which, if found guilty, he could be sentenced to prison or disqualified from politics.
D. O'Sullivan--BTZ
