Former Minister of Justice and former Secretary of Public Security of the Federal District, Anderson Torres testified today (16) to the Electoral Inspector General, Minister Benedito Gonçalves, in an action that investigates conduct capable of making former President Jair Bolsonaro ineligible, in case of conviction.
He is heard in the electoral judicial investigation action (Aije) that investigates possible electoral crime in Bolsonaro’s conduct during a meeting with ambassadors, in July 2022, when he attacked electronic voting machines and the Brazilian electoral system without presenting evidence. The testimony at the TSE was authorized by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, at the request of Gonçalves.
According to information obtained by Brazil Agency, Torres collaborated with the testimony, answering the questions for about an hour and a half. The hearing was convened by Gonçalves to clarify the so-called draft of the coup, a document found in the former secretary’s house and whose text provided for an intervention in the Electoral Justice, with the aim of preventing the counting of the elections.
Understand
In addition to being president of the TSE, Moraes is the rapporteur, at the Federal Supreme Court (STF), of an inquiry that investigates Torres’ responsibility for the anti-democratic acts of January 8.
As part of this investigation, the draft of the coup was found in the house of the former minister, in Brasilia, an interventionist document whose text foresaw the decree of a state of siege in the TSE and reversal of the result of the polls, in affront to the Constitution .
At the request of the PDT, this document was accepted as evidence in the Aije against Bolsonaro, which is why Benedito Gonçalves asked to hear Torres’ explanations.
In the decision in which he included the document in the Aije file, Benedito Gonçalves wrote that the draft may be related to the verification of the legality of the meeting with ambassadors.
“A controversial issue, admitted to the debate, is whether the electoral repercussions of the speech and its gravity can be evidenced by the draft of the State of Defense decree seized on 01/13/2023 by the Federal Police at the residence of Anderson Torres”, said the minister.
Commenting on the case on social networks, at the time of the seizure of the document and before being arrested, Torres said that the draft decree found in his home was leaked “out of context”.
