‘Porta dos Fundos’ Attack Suspect Has Fled to Russia

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Suspected of having taken part in the attack on the ‘Porta dos Fundos’ headquarters on Christmas Eve, businessman Eduardo Fauzi Richard Cerquise fled to Russia on Sunday, December 29th.

He took an Air France flight that afternoon and, after a stop in Paris, landed in Moscow, according to the Rio Civil Police. The flight was reported by TV Globo and confirmed by Folha de S.Paulo.

Marco Aurélio de Paula Ribeiro, the deputy in charge of the case, told the story that after witnesses close to the suspect had claimed they did not know his whereabouts, the investigation looked for clues on an alleged departure from the country.

They then found the suspect’s name on a flight’s passenger list. Cameras show him reaching Tom Jobim International Airport (Galeão) by taxi.

Fauzi has a rap sheet that includes physical assault on his ex-wife, according to Ribeiro. “He’s a violent person, who’s made several threats, even bodily injury,” he says.

A martial arts practitioner (he knows how to manipulate swords under the kung-fu technique), the suspect was convicted in 2019 for punching Alex Costa, the secretary of public order of Rio’s city government, in 2013.

The incident was captured by TV cameras. At the time he received the sympathy of leaders of the 2013 protests, some even went on hunger strike to get him out of jail.

Today he is said to be affiliated with the far-right fringe movements, particularly the so-called integralists, which advocate a fascist-based authoritarian nationalism.

Now on the run, Fauzi has lived in Russia before, for five years, people close to him told investigators – who have asked for his name to be included on Interpol’s list of fugitives.

The suspect speaks Russian as well as English and Spanish and has studied in good schools. In the past, he was a business partner with  his father at a gas station and today, according to Ribeiro, leads the Association of Autonomous Vehicle Guards São Miguel.

His arrest warrant was issued the day after his trip to Russia. Fauzi was identified as one of the men who claimed to speak on behalf of an integralist faction when he hurled two Molotov cocktails against the building where the production company operates, in Rio’s south zone.

The humor group became a target after a Christmas special that portrayed Jesus as a homosexual.

“We’re looking at the participation and maybe the leadership [of Fauzi]” in the attack, Ribeiro, a senior detective at the 10th Police Station, says.

Accale, the nationalist association with which the entrepreneur was associated, published a note on its social media on December 31st denying any link to the attack.

“In view of the latest news in the press, reporting the suspected involvement of one of Accale’s participants in the attack on the ‘Porta dos Fundos’, we hereby report that the act was in no way idealized or planned by Accale, our clash is in the field of ideas”.