Brazil seeks extradition of January 8 rioters currently in Argentina

BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes instructed the government to request the extradition of 63 Brazilian nationals currently in Argentina who are linked to an alleged 2023 coup attempt, the court said on Wednesday.

On Jan. 8, 2023, a week after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s inauguration in 2023, thousands of supporters of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro stormed and ransacked Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace.

Some expected the rampage would create chaos justifying a military coup to overturn Lula’s election the previous November that denied Bolsonaro reelection.

The extradition request was made by Brazil’s federal police, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The court order was sent to the Justice Ministry to be passed to the Foreign Ministry that would make the request to Argentina, they said.

Earlier this year, Reuters reported that between 50 and 100 Bolsonaro supporters charged with insurrection and vandalism fled to Argentina after Javier Milei became president in December.

Most of the fugitives have already been tried and convicted by the Supreme Court and face harsh sentences of up to 17 years in prison for planning a coup, a senior police officer involved in the investigation said at the time.

Brazil had asked the Argentine police to identify their whereabouts and status in the country before deciding to request their extradition, police officials said. The fugitives were under movement restrictions.

(Reporting by Ricardo Brito, Writing by Natalia Siniawski, Editing by Franklin Paul and Bill Berkrot)