Brazil pol tosses grenade at police

Brazilian politician Roberto Jefferson fired at police while resisting an arrest ordered by the country’s Supreme Court on Sunday for offending a justice, federal police said.

Police said two officers were injured by shrapnel from a grenade thrown by the former congressman, who was later taken into custody. Both went to the hospital and were later released.

Jefferson’s lawyer, Gustavo Cunha, said he advised his client to surrender.

In a video posted on social media, Jefferson showed an image of federal police arriving at his house, and later admitted in another video that he had aimed at the police car, but not at the officers.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered federal police to take Jefferson, an ally of President Jair Bolsonaro, to jail after Jefferson released a tape offending Justice Carmem Lucia, due to decisions she made related to the presidential elections.

Lucia had decided to transfer part of right-wing Bolsonaro’s air time to presidential candidate and former leftist President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva after Lula da Silva complained about offenses in Bolsonaro’s political ads.

Two opposition senators, Randolfe Rodrigues and Eliziane Gama, had asked the court to punish Jefferson for offending Lucia.

Bolsonaro tried to distance himself from Jefferson by tweeting that he “condemns the statements against minister Carmem Lucia and armed resistance against the federal police.”

Lula da Silva said the issue should now be solved by the police. Jefferson was already under investigation for alleged involvement in producing fake news.