Argentina orders arrests of Brazilian Bolsonaro supporters over 2023 coup bid

Argentina's justice system has ordered the arrest of 61 Brazilians in the country who are facing prison sentences at home related to last year's coup attempt in Brasilia, a judicial source told AFP on Friday.

The order, issued by Judge Daniel Rafecas, was requested by Brazil's Supreme Court to round up the Brazilian nationals in Argentina who are subject to an extradition request and have been sentenced to prison terms, the source said.

Brazilian police have arrested hundreds of suspects in the January 2023 attack by thousands of supporters of former far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro on the country's presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court.

Claiming electoral fraud, they demanded the armed forces intervene to depose newly elected left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Brazil announced on June 10 that it had requested Argentina's help in locating more than 140 fugitives linked to the assault.

"Two people have already been arrested," the judicial source said Friday.

"Wherever they are identified or located in Argentina, they will be arrested and turned over to judicial authorities to begin the extradition process."

Extradition decisions can be appealed to the Supreme Court. Once that process plays out, the matter passes to the executive branch, which can accept the extradition, grant refugee status, or take other recourse, thereby avoiding extradition.

However in October, Argentina amended its refugee law so that people accused or convicted of crimes in their native countries would no longer be eligible.

Argentine President Javier Milei has meanwhile distanced himself from Lula, expressing favor for strongman Bolsonaro, whose supporters carried out the attacks.

The first suspect to be arrested in Argentina was Joelton Gusmao de Oliveira, a 47-year-old man sentenced in absentia in Brazil in February to 17 years in prison. 

He was apprehended Thursday while trying to renew his refugee status in the city of La Plata, local media reported.

The second, Rodrigo De Freitas Moro, 34, was arrested in the same city while trying to carry out immigration procedures, local police said.

The two men were found guilty of an attempted coup d'etat, aggravated damage, armed criminal association and violent suppression of the democratic rule of law.

(AFP)