Former federal deputy Roberto Jefferson of the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB) threw a grenade and shot at Federal Police agents who went to his house this Sunday October 23. The officers went to serve an arrest warrant against the former congressman at the request of the Federal Supreme Court (STF). Two police officers were injured by shrapnel from the grenade and were taken to the emergency room. According to the Federal Police, they received medical attention and have since been released.
According to the Federal Police, by Sunday evening, Jefferson surrendered and was taken to the Federal Police Station. Before the former congressman turned himself in, the defeated PTB presidential candidate, Father Kelmon, handed weapons that were in Roberto Jefferson’s possession to the police.
In a video recorded by the former deputy inside his home, Jefferson is seen monitoring security cameras that show the police officers. He says: “I’m not turning myself in because I think it’s absurd. Enough is enough, I’m tired of being a victim of arbitrariness and abuse. Unfortunately I’m going to face them.”
According to the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, Jefferson fired more than 20 rifle shots and threw two grenades at federal police officers.
In another video made by the former deputy, the Federal Police car appears on the security cameras. The vehicle has its glass shattered, and an agent appears running away.
“They shot at me and I shot at them. I am inside the house, but they are surrounding me. It’s going to get worse, but I won’t give in,” says the deputy in the recording. He also criticizes Minister Alexandre de Morais, whom he accuses of being authoritarian.
A tow truck removed the Federal Police car that Jefferson attacked and there were bullet marks on the windshield.
The case
The Federal Police operation comes one day after Jefferson insulted Minister Cármen Lúcia of the Federal Supreme Court. He compared her to “prostitutes”, “burglars” and “sluts” in a video posted on the social networks of his daughter Cristiane Brasil also of PTB.
The former deputy has been under house arrest since January of this year, when he left the prison for health reasons. In August of last year, his arrest was decreed after he spread threats against the country’s institutions of justice.
In response to his video attacking Cármen Lúcia, the Brazilian Association of Jurists for Democracy (ABJD) presented to Minister Alexandre de Moraes a request to revoke Roberto Jefferson’s house arrest.
In the video, the former deputy says he is “indignant, I went to review the vote of the Blair witch, of Cármen ‘Lucifer’, in the previous censorship of Jovem Pan, I looked again, I can’t believe it? [She] really reminds me of those prostitutes, those tramps, the ones who are broken into, right? Who turn to the guy and say ‘Oh, honey, in the ass? I’ve never given the ass, it’s the first time. She did it for the first time, she opened the unconstitutionality for the first time. She says it like this, ‘prior censorship is unconstitutional, it is against the Supreme Court precedent, but it is only this time, honey… Blair Witch, she is rotten inside and hideous outside, she is a witch, a witch… If you put a pointy hat and a broomstick in her hand, she’ll fly… God save me from this woman who is in this cesspool that is the Superior Electoral Court,” Roberto Jefferson said.
The former deputy is referring to the decision of Minister Cármen Lúcia, in the trial of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which forced the removal of fake news from the radio station, TV, and internet platforms Jovem Pan. With her vote, the court had a majority for the decision that required the station to give former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) a right of reply for false or distorted statements made by commentators on the channel.
Alexandre de Moraes, who had already spoken out on social networks criticizing Jefferson’s “sexist and misogynist aggression”, ordered the Federal Police to go to the deputy’s house this Sunday morning October 23.
This is based on articles written in Portuguese and published on Brasil de Fato.
