Brazil’s Justice Minister, Flávio Dino, said Monday that the government does not have the elements to ask the US for the extradition of former President Jair Bolsonaro, whom he considers politically responsible for Sunday’s attacks on public buildings in Brasília. class
“Extradition is a legal process with international standards and extradition can only be requested when someone is charged with a crime. There are still no elements to request his extradition,” the minister said at a press conference.
Dino clarified that, despite the numerous criminal proceedings initiated against the leader of the Brazilian extreme right and that he is considered “politically responsible” for the attacks by radicals on the offices of the Presidency of the Republic, Congress and the Supreme Federal Court, in Brasilia, perpetrated by his sympathizers on Sunday, there is no arrest warrant that justifies the request for his extradition.
“As for being removed from the United States, it is a matter of their sovereignty. They [Governo dos Estados Unidos] can assess the convenience of a citizen remaining in their territory,” Dino added, referring to the possibility that the Joe Biden government expels Bolsonaro.
The leader of the Brazilian extreme right took refuge in Florida two days before the transition of power to his successor and refused to hand over the presidential sash to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, winner of the October presidential elections and whose victory Bolsonaro has yet to win. publicly acknowledge. .
Those responsible for the attacks in Brasilia, unprecedented in Brazilian history and which left considerable damage to the country’s main public buildings, are radical “Bolsonaristas” who also do not recognize Lula da Silva’s electoral victory and are calling for a coup d’état .
Some US Democratic Party congressmen have already called on Biden to oust Bolsonaro.
“The United States needs to stop granting Bolsonaro refuge in Florida,” said New York Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a message on her social media.
Lawmakers like Texan Joaquin Castro, Minnesota’s Ilhah Omar and California’s Mark Takano have made similar requests.
White House security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that the US government has no direct contact with Bolsonaro and that the Brazilian government has not called for the former president’s return.
“If we received a request of this type, we would take it seriously, as we always do,” Sullivan said in statements to the media during a visit to Mexico.
Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro invaded and vandalized the headquarters of the Federal Supreme Court, Congress and the Planalto Palace in Brasilia on Sunday, forcing police to intervene to restore order and drawing condemnation from the international community.
The Military Police managed to retake control of the headquarters of the three powers, in an operation that resulted in at least 1,500 detainees.
The invasion began after militants from the Brazilian extreme right, supporters of the former president, defeated by Lula da Silva in last October’s elections, called a protest on the Esplanada dos Ministérios.
However, the judge of the Federal Supreme Court Alexandre de Moraes dismissed the governor of the Federal District, Ibaneis Rocha, for 90 days, considering that both the governor and the former Secretary of Security and former Minister of Justice of Bolsonaro Anderson Torres have acted with negligence and omission .
Source: TSF
