Former Brazilian defense minister Walter Braga Netto was arrested on Saturday in a Federal Police investigation into the coup allegedly plotted by former President Jair Bolsonaro. International news agencies report this. Bolsonaro’s former running mate is said to have been one of the main organizers of the coup attempt.
In November, Braga Netto was formally accused of involvement in the attempted coup. Together with Bolsonaro and 35 other allies, he is said to have tried to prevent the transfer of power at the end of 2022 after Bolsonaro lost the presidential elections to Luiz Ignácio ‘Lula’ da Silva. Braga Netto was a candidate for vice president at the time.
The conspirators are said to have planned, among other things, to assassinate the newly elected Lula and his vice-president Geraldo Alckmin. Braga Netto is said to have approved a plan to poison or inject Lula with deadly chemicals. Netto denies his involvement in the alleged plot. There are no formal charges against him yet.
The Brazilian police wrote in a letter on Saturday declarationwithout explicitly mentioning Braga Netto’s name, that he had ‘thwarted’ the collection of evidence in the investigation. His home in Rio de Janeiro was searched.
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