Brazil President Bolsonaro’s ‘friend’ attacks police with rifles, grenades while resisting arrest

Campaigning for Brazil’s president turned violent after a politician who is a close aide of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro attacked police with grenades and rifles when they arrived at his house to arrest him.

Roberto Jefferson, a former congressman who is a “personal friend” of Bolsonaro, told supporters in a video on Sunday morning that launched the attack after police arrived at his home in the north of Rio de Janeiro.

“I shot at the car and close to them,” he admitted in anonline video, claiming that he was resisting arrest “in the name of freedom, democracy and family values”.

According to reports, two officers sustained non-fatal injuries, while the police vehicle was riddled with bullet holes.

In the video, he claimed that he would not surrender, but by evening he was under the police’s custody.

In another video, Jefferson sought to clarify that he never intended to attack the officers.

"I didn't shoot anyone to hit them. No one. I shot their car and near them. There were four of them, they ran, I said, 'Get out, because I'm going get you’,” he was quoted as saying.

"I'm setting my example, I'm leaving my seed planted: resist oppression, resist tyranny. God bless Brazil."

Jefferson was jailed in August 2021 before being placed under house arrest as part of a probe into anti-democratic social media mobs.

The police were at Jefferson’s because a Supreme Court judge on Sunday ordered the police to return the 69-year-old to jail after he compared a member of the court to a prostitute.

Bolsonaro issued a statement later in the day distancing himself from Jefferson, saying, “There's not a single picture of him and me". He also condemned Jefferson for attacking the police.

However, his opponents promptly posted several pictures of the two together on social media.

(With inputs from agencies)

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