Police release elders, mothers with kids detained at putschist rallies

Brazil’s Federal Police reported they have released 599 people who had been arrested Monday (Jan. 9), when the campsite set up by pro-coup rioters outside the Army headquarters in Brasília was dismantled. The move was motivated by humanitarian reasons, as the group comprises elderly people and mothers with their children.

Regarding the other detainees, health officials in the Federal District reported that care facilities have been installed at the police academy where the more than 1.5 thousand people were taken.

The detainees were driven to the site in dozens of buses after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the arrest in flagrante delicto of anyone who refused to leave the putschist campsites set up across the country.

In the decision, Justice Moraes mentions seven crimes that may have been committed by pro-Bolsonaro militants, including crimes against the rule of law and national sovereignty. Moraes’s decision came hours after vandals invaded and ravaged the Planalto presidential palace, the National Congress, and the Supreme Court, in the Três Poderes square, on Sunday afternoon (8).

There is ample access to lawyers and public defenders at the academy, the police stated. All those who are still there will be heard and charged. Some are being released, while others are being sent to prison units in the Federal District. As of 3:35 pm Tuesday, 527 people were held in custody, the police said in a statement.

“Everyone is receiving food regularly (breakfast, lunch, an afternoon meal, and dinner), drinking water, and medical care when necessary,” the statement reads.

Also on Tuesday, during the inauguration ceremony of the new director-general of the Federal Police, Andrei Rodrigues, Justice Moraes said that everyone who practiced in, financed, and encouraged Sunday’s riot would be punished under the law. “The institutions will not falter,” he declared.