Brazil appellate court authorizes reopening of investigation into 2018 knife attack against Bolsonaro

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Federal Appellate Court (TRF-1) on Wednesday rejected an appeal to prevent the restart of investigations, instead authorizing the Federal Police to try to establish whether waiter Adelio Bispo de Oliveira acted under third party instructions when he stabbed the far-right candidate for Brazil’s presidency.

Adelio Bispo has been detained since September 6, 2018, when he stabbed the current head of state while participating in an election rally in the city of Juiz de Fora.

Leading the presidential election polls at the time, Bolsonaro was seriously injured in the abdomen, which forced him to undergo four surgeries, the last two when he was already President.

But the perpetrator of the attack was acquitted by the courts in June 2019 after the judge in charge of the case found him non-criminally imputable due to mental disorders and ruled that he be confined for an indefinite period in a psychiatric facility, where he remains to this day.

Bolsonaro lodged an appeal against the court ruling and requested that the Federal Police reopen investigations to try to identify the people who ordered and financed the attack.

In 2019, the Federal Police served search and seizure warrants for potential evidence in the offices of Adelio Bispo’s defense attorneys in an attempt to find clues, but the Brazilian Bar Association filed for the suspension of the measures for allegedly violating the professional secrecy of counsel.

The Bar Association’s appeal was initially accepted by the lower court judge, thus paralyzing investigations, but the Brasilia-based Federal Appellate Court on Wednesday suspended the initial ruling and reopened the investigations.

Bolsonaro’s attorney Frederick Wassef said that the new court decision allows the investigations to continue in order to identify the principal allegedly behind the attack.

According to Wassef, the Federal Police will now be able to search for camera recordings that would show the people who hired the private attorneys representing Adelio Bispo, considering the likelihood that they may also represent the principals.

In the proceeding in which the perpetrator of the attack was determined not guilty by reason of not being criminally imputable, the judge in charge of the case found that the attacker acted alone and was prompted by disagreements with the then presidential candidate.

When arrested, Bolsonaro’s attacker alleged that he disagreed with the political and religious views of the far-right candidate, a supporter of the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil between 1964 and 1985 and controversial for his insistent sexist, homophobic, racist and misogynist statements.

Bolsonaro supporters have long alleged that the attacker was acting in the service of an unknown principal, either individuals or even political parties.

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