The director general of the Brazilian Federal Police, Andrei Rodrigues, said today that the explosives attack on the Supreme Court (STF), whose perpetrator was killed, is being investigated as terrorism and was not an isolated act.
Two explosions occurred on Wednesday night near the STF in Brasília, killing Francisco Wanderley Luiz, 59, identified as the perpetrator of the attack on the court by the police and a member of the Liberal Party, led by former President Jair Bolsonaro.
"These extremist groups are active and need us to act energetically, not only the Federal Police, but the entire criminal justice system," said Andrei Rodrigues at a press conference.
According to the director general of the Brazilian judicial police, the attack on the STF "is not an isolated incident," but is "connected to several other actions that the Federal Police have been investigating recently," referring to the investigations against far-right supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro who attacked the headquarters of the Three Powers in Brasília on January 8, 2023.
Andrei Rodrigues explained that the Federal Police opened an investigation into the attack carried out on Wednesday night and the line of investigation, so far, is based on two criminal hypotheses: an act that undermines the Democratic Rule of Law and also a terrorist act.
"We are treating this case from both perspectives and that is why our anti-terrorism unit is working directly on this case," said the director of the Federal Police.
"There is evidence of long-term planning, this person has been to Brasília on other occasions, in fact, according to reports from family members, he was here in Brasília at the beginning of 2023, but it is still too early to say whether or not he participated directly in the acts of January 8," he added.
The head of the Brazilian judicial police reinforced that at the suspect's residence, in Ceilândia, a satellite city of Brasília, the police found a message written on the mirror that mentioned an act carried out by an extremist 'Bolsonaro', Debora Rodrigues, who vandalized the Statue of Justice, in front of the STF, on January 8, 2023.
"Debora Rodrigues, please don't waste lipstick, it's to make women beautiful. Statues of 'shit' use TNT [explosive material]", could be read in the message left by the attacker on the mirror and which directly refers to the attacks on the headquarters of the Three Powers in the capital of Brazil.
The STF was one of the buildings most attacked on January 8, 2023, along with the Palácio do Planalto and the Congress building, by thousands of 'Bolsonaro' radicals, an attack that the judiciary is investigating as an attempted coup against Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, eight days after taking office as head of state after defeating former president Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 presidential elections.
Regarding the ongoing investigations, Rodrigues confirmed that homemade explosive devices with a significant degree of damage were found in the home of the perpetrator of the attack, as they contained fragmentation devices that simulated a grenade.
The director of the Brazilian Federal Police added that Francisco Wanderley Luiz, the perpetrator of the attack on the STF, was carrying a fire extinguisher loaded with fuel, which could be used as a flamethrower.
"We still don't know the motive for the crime and we are working, as I said, with these criminal hypotheses of a terrorist act, but also of the act of violent abolition of the Democratic State of Law. And, this case, is connected, as I also quickly mentioned, with other investigations by the Federal Police [due to] this very clear signal, this message left by the person who committed suicide", he concluded.
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