Taken from PL The Supreme Federal Court (STF) of Brazil will rule practically starting this Wednesday confirming the 90-day impeachment of Federal District (DF) Governor Ibaneis Rocha.
Minister Alexandre de Moraes of the STF decided on Monday to remove Rocha from office for that period, following invasions of the three powers’ headquarters in Brasilia a day earlier.
DF security forces on Sunday did not hold back radical supporters of defeated President Jair Bolsonaro, who broke into and looted the buildings of the National Congress, the Supreme Court and the Planalto Palace, the seat of the executive branch.
De Moraes made the finding as part of the investigation into anti-democratic acts, for which he is the rapporteur, when considering a motion by Senator Randolfe Rodrigues and the Union Attorney General’s Office.
According to the judge, since the preparations were known, the terrorist attacks could only have had the approval of the DF government.
The violent escalation of criminal acts “with looting of public property, as widely reported in the national press, circumstances that could only occur with the consent and even effective involvement of the relevant public security and intelligence agencies,” the judge argued his verdict.
For De Alexandre, “the despicable acts of terrorism against democracy and republican institutions, as well as the financiers, instigators, and past and present complicit and criminal public agents who continue to illegally carry out the practice of anti-democratic acts, are held responsible.”
He specified that Rocha’s removal is justified by the commission of crimes such as: preparatory acts of terrorism, criminal association, vandalism, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law and coup d’etat.
The day before, De Moraes also ordered the arrest of Anderson Torres, the former justice minister in the Bolsonaro government. He went abroad days after Lula’s inauguration (January 1), an act he found suspicious, all the more so since he was the DF’s security minister when the terrorist attacks took place.
De Moraes also ordered the arrest of the former commander of the DF’s military police, Colonel Fábio Augusto, who was in charge of this force when it came to the vandal attacks by the Bolsonaristas (followers of the former army captain).
Congress also this Tuesday approved Lula’s executive order authorizing federal intervention in DF public security in the wake of the invasions through Jan. 31.
Such a measure is provided for in Article 34 of the Federal Constitution in order to “put an end to a serious threat to public order” and “to ensure the free exercise of all powers in the federal units”.