BRASILIA (Reuters) Jan,14– Former Brazilian justice minister Anderson Torres, who was in charge of public security in Brasilia when government buildings were broken into a week ago, was accused of “negligence” and “acquisition” on Saturday was arrested in Brasilia.
Torres was arrested on Saturday after returning to Brazil. He was on vacation in Florida. Florida is the same state his former boss, former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro traveled to after losing last year’s election.
The former minister said Thursday that evidence presented by police was taken out of context when his home was raided this week.
Brazil’s Supreme Court Judge Alexandre Demorais ordered the arrest of Torres on Tuesday. It wasn’t immediately clear what the charges were, but Moraes cited allegations of “negligence” and “acquisition” of Torres.
Protests by Bolsonaro supporters last Sunday culminated in a raid on a government building in Brasilia.
Federal Police Commissioner Andrei Rodriguez said earlier this week that “various deliberate omissions allegedly carried out by the head of public security in the Federal District contributed to the execution of the terrorist act.”
Brazilian police found a draft order at Torres’ home on Thursday that appeared to be a proposal to interfere in the outcome of October’s elections, in which Bolsonaro lost to Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.
According to Anderson-Torres, the document was “taken out of context” after it was confiscated when he left his home, and was likely included in a pile of papers intended for disposal.
“In time everything will be crushed,” the former minister said in a Twitter post on Thursday. Also on Tuesday, when Anderson-Torres learned of Moraes’ arrest warrant, he took to Twitter to suspend his vacation, saying he would return to Brazil and turn himself in.
Justice Minister Flavio Dino said he was allowed to return to Torres until Monday, after which he began the extradition process.
