By Vanessa BuschschlüterBBC News8 February 2024, 16:08 GMTUpdated 1 hour agoImage caption, The federal police have conducted searches at various locations as part of the investigationFormer President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has been given a deadline of 24 hours to hand over his passport as part of an ongoing investigation into the storming of Brazil’s Congress in 2023 by his supporters. The police allege that he was involved in a failed scheme to stay in power after losing the election to his left-wing opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Mr. Bolsonaro insists that the operation is politically motivated.Three of Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters have been arrested, and the leader of his political party has also been taken into custody. They are suspected of planning to keep Mr. Bolsonaro in power following his electoral defeat in October 2022. The police claim that they spread doubt about the electoral system, which became a rallying cry for Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters, who argued that the election had been stolen from him. According to the police, this laid the groundwork for a potential coup. When the armed forces did not support it, however, his frustrated supporters stormed Congress, as well as the building housing the Supreme Court and the presidential palace, on 8 January 2023. Mr. Bolsonaro was in the US when the attack on Congress took place.On Thursday, he refuted any wrongdoing. “I stepped down from the government over a year ago and I continue to face relentless persecution,” Mr. Bolsonaro told Brazilian newspaper Folha after police conducted searches at numerous properties. “Forget about me. There is already someone else running the country,” he added. A lawyer for the former president stated that his client would comply with the order to surrender his passport.The ex-president returned to Brazil in March 2023, two months after the storming of Congress, stating that he had nothing to fear despite being the subject of multiple investigations. In June, he was prohibited from standing for office for eight years for casting baseless doubts on Brazil’s electronic voting system. However, the focus has been primarily on the investigation into the events of 8 January 2023. Brazil’s federal police provided limited information about the operation carried out on Thursday, but stated that it was aimed at a “criminal organization involved in the attempted coup”.Over the past year, over 1,400 individuals have been charged for their alleged involvement in the riots, but only a few dozen have been convicted thus far.
