Brazil politician attacks police with rifle and grenades, wounding two

 

Brazil politician attacks police with rifle and grenades, wounding two

 

Bolsonaro ally Roberto Jefferson refuses to surrender after violating terms of his house arrest

 

Reuters

Mon 24 Oct 2022 10.28 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/24/brazil-politician-attacks-police-rifle-grenades-roberto-jefferson

 

A Brazilian politician has attacked federal police officers trying to arrest him at his home, leading to an hours-long siege.

 

Roberto Jefferson, a former lawmaker and an ally of the president, Jair Bolsonaro, fired a rifle at police and threw grenades, wounding two officers in the rural municipality of Comendador Levy Gasparian, in Rio de Janeiro state, on Sunday. He said in a video message sent to supporters on WhatsApp that he refused to surrender, though by early evening he was in custody.

 

The events come just days before the Brazilian presidential election. The country’s supreme court has sought to rein in the spread of disinformation and anti-democratic rhetoric before the 30 October vote, often inviting the ire of Bolsonaro’s base, who decry such actions as censorship.

 

As part of these efforts, Justice Alexandre de Moraes had ordered that Jefferson be taken to jail for making threats against the court’s justices.

 

Jefferson was already under investigation and house arrest for his alleged involvement in producing fake news. In his decision published on Sunday, Moraes said Jefferson’s actions – most recently using social media to compare one female justice to a prostitute – violated the terms of his house arrest, and ordered he be returned to prison.

 

This year’s presidential election has pitted Brazilians, including Rio’s gangsters, against each other like never before.

 

In the video message distributed on Sunday, Jefferson said: “I didn’t shoot anyone to hit them. No one. I shot their car and near them. I’m setting my example, I’m leaving my seed planted: resist oppression, resist tyranny. God bless Brazil.”

 

Brazil’s federal police said in another statement that Jefferson was also arrested for attempted murder.

 

Bolsonaro was quick to criticise his ally in a live broadcast on social media. He denounced Jefferson’s statements against supreme court justices, including the threats and insults that led to his initial arrest, and Sunday’s attack. He also sought to distance himself from the former lawmaker.

 

“There’s not a single picture of him and me,” Brazil’s president said. His opponents promptly posted several pictures on social media of the two together.

 

Bolsonaro’s base had mixed reactions, with some on social media hailing Jefferson as a hero for standing up to the top court. Dozens flocked to his house to show support as he remained holed up inside. One group held a banner that read: “Freedom for Roberto Jefferson.”

 

The former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is campaigning to return to the top job, told reporters in São Paulo that Jefferson “does not have adequate behaviour. It is not normal behaviour.”

 

Earlier this year, the supreme court convicted the lawmaker Daniel Silveira for inciting physical attacks on the court’s justices and other authorities. Bolsonaro quickly issued a pardon for Silveira, who appeared beside the president after he cast his vote in the election’s first round on 2 October.

 

“Brazil is terrified watching events that, this Sunday, reach the peak of the absurd,” Arthur Lira, the president of congress’s lower house and a Bolsonaro ally, wrote on Twitter. “We will not tolerate setbacks or attacks against our democracy.”