Brazil Police Conduct New Raids As Part Of Jan. 8 Riots Probe

In an investigation into the riots that took place in Brasilia on Jan. 8, during which supporters of the late president Jair Bolsonaro assaulted government buildings, Brazil's federal police announced on Tuesday that they were conducting further raids.

According to a statement, they were serving eight preventative arrest warrants and 13 search and seizure warrants issued by the Supreme Court in five states.

The raids mark the sixth phase of an investigation that began last month to identify those responsible for the disturbances, which saw a mob attack and loot the Supreme Court, the presidential palace, and the Congress. It was the worst attack on state institutions since Brazil's return to democracy in the 1980s.

They detained the military police officer who supervised security operations in the capital on Jan. 8 during the previous phase, which was completed last week, according to sources, on suspicion of omissions in security planning, Reuters reported.

Although police withheld the identities of those who were the subject of the raids on Tuesday, they stated that they were being looked into for crimes involving "violent abolition of the rule of law, coup d'état, qualified damage, criminal association, incitement, destruction, and deterioration of the specially protected property."

"The goal is to seek evidence to support the inquiry into the conduct of public authorities who might have failed in their obligation to prevent the violent acts that day in Brasilia," the federal police said in a statement during the raid conducted in Jan.

"We are absolutely calm, there is nothing to hide. This raid is unnecessary and fruitless," his lawyer Cleber Lopes said, adding that the governor had no connection to the violence, Reuters reported.

Since Rocha was the head of the Brazilian Bar Association before becoming governor, the operation received condemnation from the legal community. They claimed they had the power to violate his client's confidentiality.

The Brazilian Solicitor General's Office demanded on Friday that a civil court sentence 54 people and five businesses to pay BRL 20.7 million (USD 4 million) in reparations for harm to federal property brought on by the disturbances of Jan. 8.

An initial BRI 6.5 million (USD 1.2 million) in assets belonged to people and companies that funded the buses that carried the pro-Bolsonaro demonstrators to Brasilia when they were previously frozen by a federal court. During the course of the lawsuit, the cost of property damages can still increase, reports The Brazilian Report.

However, it's possible that some of the artwork harmed in the riots will never be repaired. The Balthazar Martinot clock, a 17th-century pendulum that was given to Brazilian Emperor Dom Joao VI by the French Court, is currently being repaired with the assistance of the Embassy Of Switzerland.