(Brasilia) Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has no responsibility for the January 8 coup attempt in Brasilia, his son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, said on Saturday, indicating that he had no evidence. on a possible return of his father, currently in the United States.
“There is nothing legally that implicates Bolsonaro. Justice is not the place of a political trial. He is very calm, because he knows that there is no way to link him to a criminal act,” the parliamentarian told media including AFP.
PHOTO ERALDO PERES, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Flavio Bolsonaro, son of Jair Bolsonaro
“If a person wearing Bolsonaro clothes goes out into the street to do something inappropriate, they should be held responsible, not Bolsonaro,” he insisted. “He has no power over these people,” assured the eldest son of the former president.
On January 8, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters, unhappy with Lula da Silva’s victory over the far-right ex-president in the October 2022 presidential election, invaded and vandalized the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court.
A Brazilian judge has decided to include the ex-leader, who left Brazil for Florida on December 31, two days before the end of his mandate, in the investigation which aims to determine who is at the origin of the sacking of Brazilian institutions.
When asked if Jair Bolsonaro was going to return to Brazil, his son was evasive. “It could be tomorrow or in six months or he may never come back. Nothing is planned, “said the senator, for whom his father is on” vacation “.
Aged 67, the ex-president could soon undergo a new surgery “to still repair (his) intestine”, indicated Flavio Bolsonaro.
Since a knife attack in 2018 during an electoral trip, Jair Bolsonaro had undergone several operations for a recurrent intestinal obstruction.