Torres tells the PF that he did not order joint action with the PRF – 05/08/2023 – Politics

Former Justice Minister Anderson Torres said, in a statement to the Federal Police this Monday (8), that he traveled to Salvador between the first and second round of elections at the invitation of the then director general of the Federal Police, Márcio Nunes de Oliveira. , to inspect a work at the agency’s regional superintendence.

According to reports made to the SheetTorres also said in his statement that his conversation with the PF superintendent in Bahia, Leandro Almada, dealt with a concern expressed by the TRE (Regional Electoral Court) in relation to the possible lack of personnel on the day of the second round.

To investigators, Torres claimed that his only concern was combating electoral crimes, regardless of candidate or party.

The Federal Police investigates a trip by the then minister of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to Bahia at the time. At the time, Torres would have asked the Federal Police to work with the PRF (Federal Highway Police) on the highways to carry out blitzes in places where the then candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) —now president— had received more votes than Bolsonaro in the first round.

In this sense, one of Torres’ lines of defense in this Monday’s testimony was to emphasize that the idea of ​​u200bu200bthe trip to Bahia did not come from the former minister.

He also said that he never interfered in the operational planning of the PF and the PRF (Federal Highway Police) and that there was no determination for joint action by these corporations on election day.

The former Minister of Justice and former Secretary of Public Security of the Federal District testified this Monday.

After the hearing, his lawyer, Eumar Novacki, said in a note that the “deposition occurred within normality”.

“Anderson Torres attended the headquarters of the Federal Police, waived his constitutional right to silence and answered all the questions raised”, said the lawyer. “He maintains the posture of cooperating with the investigations, since he is the main interested in the quick clarification of the facts and believes that the truth will prevail.”

Torres was supposed to testify on the 24th, but the PF postponed the questioning after the ex-minister’s lawyers alleged a “drastic deterioration” in his health.

According to the defense, Torres had had a “worsening of his mental health” after Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Federal Supreme Court), denied a request for his release.

Arrested since January, the former holder of the Ministry of Justice is suspected of using the PRF in blockades in the second round of the presidential election, in October 2022, to make it difficult for voters of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to arrive in the places of voting.

“What I can say is that there are multiple indications of reports, trips, commands, administrative determinations. And we have a very eloquent indication, the fact occurred: on the 31st of October [na verdade, 30] there were these so-called atypical operations,” said Justice Minister Flávio Dino (PSB) last month.

Torres was arrested by decision of the STF after the attacks on the headquarters of the Three Powers, on January 8. He had just been appointed Secretary of Public Security for the Federal District, but traveled to the United States early, as his vacation began the day after the invasions.

One of Moraes’ arguments for denying the former minister’s release deals precisely with the suspicion surrounding the use of the PRF in a “coup operation” against Lula’s voters.

“[Há] strong evidence of the applicant’s participation [Torres] in the preparation of an alleged ‘coup draft’ and in a ‘coup operation’ by the Federal Highway Police to try to subvert the legitimate popular participation in the 2nd round of the 2022 presidential elections”, said Moraes in the decision.

“As if that were not enough, the applicant Anderson Gustavo Torres removed from the investigations the possibility of access to his cell phone, consequently, from the message exchanges carried out on the day of the coup acts and in the periods before and after; and to his electronic messages”, he added.

In March, Anderson Torres changed lawyers and, since then, the defense began to detail the former minister’s health condition to ask for the release and postponement of commitments with the Justice.

According to the lawyers, he has suffered psychological problems since he was arrested in January. “[Ele] entered a state of deep sadness, cries constantly, barely eats and has already lost 12 kilos”, they say.

“After the decree of precautionary custody of the applicant, his daughters, unfortunately, began to receive psychological support, with the prejudice of attending school regularly. Added to this the fact that the applicant’s mother is treating cancer”, they completed.