Brazil's Supreme Court agreed on Friday to open an investigation into former President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly encouraging anti-democratic protests that ended in the storming of government buildings by his supporters in Brasilia.
"Public figures who continue to cowardly conspire against democracy trying to establish a state of exception will be held accountable," said Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who agreed to the request by federal prosecutors to launch the probe.
Bolsonaro, who is currently in the United States, will be investigated by prosecutors for possible "instigation and intellectual authorship of the anti-democratic acts that resulted in vandalism and violence in Brasilia last Sunday," the top public prosecutor's office said in a statement.