Brazil’s Federal Police have arrested four Military Police officers for dereliction of duty during the January 8 assault on the headquarters of the three branches of government in Brasília.
Those arrested are “Colonel Jorge Eduardo Naime Barreto, Captain Josiel Pereira César, Major General Flávio Silvestre de Alencar and Agent Rafael Pereira Martins,” according to information from the Federal Police. They are accused of having facilitated the entry of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro on January 8 to the buildings of the National Congress, the Planalto Palace and the Federal Supreme Court.
Colonel Jorge Eduardo Naime was head of the operations department of the Military Police in the Federal District at the time of the attempted coup. He was removed from his post on January 10.
These arrests are part of the fifth phase of operation “Lèse Patria.” Three provisional arrest warrants and one pre-trial detention were executed in this phase. The charges are: “violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état, qualified damage, criminal association, incitement to crime and destruction of protected property,” according to the Federal Police.
The Federal Police “continues to investigate the events that occurred last January 8. The findings are delivered to the Judiciary and the Public Prosecutor’s Office to take the corresponding measures,” said the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, via Twitter.
