Brazil Charges Pro-Bolsonaro Rioters Who Stormed Government Buildings, More To Come

The first charges against the people who participated in the pro-Bolsonaro riot in Brasilia has been filed on Tuesday as the Brazilian government aims to punish them as a preventative measure from future acts from occurring.

The prosecutor-general’s office revealed that the first charges against the thousands who swarmed the capital have been filed, with 39 people being given charges of “armed criminal association, violent attempt to subvert the democratic state of law, staging a coup and damage to public property,” according to the Associated Press.

The 39 people who participated in the riot also found their assets, worth a reported $7.7 million altogether, frozen. The prosecutor-general’s office recommended to the courts for the 39 to be imprisoned as a preventative measure against possible future acts against the government, The Guardian reported.

Despite how the government has taken to describing the riot as a serious threat to national security, the rioters were not charged with terrorism due to Brazilian law defining it as something that must involve xenophobic acts or prejudice against a specific race, religion, or ethnicity.

“The ultimate objective of the attack ... was the installation of an alternative government regime,” the statement announcing the charges said. The rioters were also described as people attempting to “abolish the democratic rule of law” by the use of violence.

The Brazil riot found thousands of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro storming the Presidential Palace, the Supreme Court, and Congress in what is seen as an attempt to depose President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and install Bolsonaro in his place.

The supporters ransacked and defaced much of the buildings, in an act that has been described as reminiscent of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack in support of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

The riot has been highly criticized for being an “anti-democratic” act by local and international leaders and figures, and Lula da Silva’s government has imposed investigations into the incident in an attempt to prevent it from happening again.