Brazil prosecutors request Bolsonaro probe for inciting riot

The Brazilian prosecutor-general’s office on Friday asked the Supreme Court to include former president Jair Bolsonaro in its investigation into who incited the Jan. 8 riot in the nation’s capital.
As the basis for their request, prosecutors in the recently formed group to combat anti-democratic acts cited a video Bolsonaro posted on Facebook two days after the riot, according to a statement. The video claimed Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wasn’t voted into office, but rather was chosen by the Supreme Court and Brazil’s electoral authority.
Otherwise, Bolsonaro has refrained from commenting on the election since his Oct. 30 defeat. He repeatedly stoked doubt about the reliability of the nation’s electronic voting system in the run-up to the vote, filed a request afterward to annul millions of ballots cast using the machines and never conceded.
Prosecutors argued that, although Bolsonaro posted the video after the riot, its content was sufficient to justify investigating his conduct beforehand. Bolsonaro deleted it the morning after he first posted it.