Attorney-general moves to have Jan. 8 rioters pay BRL 20.7 mi

Brazil’s Attorney-General’s Office has submitted a motion to a federal court in Brasília in a bid to making permanent the provisional remedy blocking the assets of those accused of financing the chartering of buses for the antidemocratic uprising of January 8. Aiming to protect public property, the document requests that the individuals be sentenced to pay a total of BRL 20.7 million to the public treasury.

The lawsuit lists 54 individuals, three companies, an association, and a trade union. A protesting citizen, the motion reads, must not “exceed the limits imposed by the economic or social purpose of their right to protest.”

“In a democratic regime such as Brazil’s,” the text goes on, “it goes against the customs of democracy and good faith to organize and finance a movement or demonstration with the intention of seizing power—which casts light on the illicit nature of the event staged.”

The value requested is said to stem from the damages estimated by the Supreme Court, the Planalto presidential palace, the lower house, and the Senate, and “is the amount that this office considers to be incontrovertible material damage, notwithstanding the fact that, during the course of the investigation, new evidence may be produced showing even greater damage to public assets.”

Thus far, the Office of the Attorney-General has filed a total of four motions in connection with the January 8 pro-coup attacks in Brasília.