In line with the speech of ministers of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), the Federal Police’s main line of investigation is the hypothesis that Francisco Wanderley Luís, responsible for the explosions in front of the Court’s headquarters building last week and who died in the detonating one of the artifacts, he did not act alone, as politicians allied with former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) claim.
Within this line, there are two aspects. The first is that, to commit the act, he had the direct help of other people who financed and helped prepare an attack that, ultimately, would seek to kill STF ministers, especially Alexandre de Moraes. The second is that he acted under the influence or provocation of friends or even strangers, in the virtual environment for example, to materialize an extreme act of revolt against the court and its members.
The hypothesis that Francisco acted in isolation, as a “lone wolf”, is the most remote, in the opinion of the PF investigators, who work on the case in collaboration with judicial police officers from the STF. The fire set by his ex-wife in his home, on Sunday (17), in Rio do Sul (SC), may also reinforce the hypothesis of participation, albeit indirect, by other people.
The Santa Catarina Civil Police believe that Tiu França’s ex, as he was known in the city, set fire to the property in an attempt to kill herself. The PF does not rule out her possible involvement, even as an accomplice, in the attack on the STF – in her statement, she said that her ex-husband wanted to kill Moraes.
Another hypothesis, also considered in this case, is that she could not handle the pressure, as her life began to be searched for evidence about the case. Before the fire, federal police officers searched and seized the house, looking for materials, notes or clues about Francisco’s preparation to detonate the bombs in Brasília.
One of the investigators told the report that, apparently, Francisco was a “very psychologically disturbed” person, which made him susceptible to incentives for violent acts, through co-optation or manipulation. The investigation, therefore, seeks to confirm whether he was influenced and stimulated by radical speeches when carrying out the explosions in DF.
One of the objectives was to listen to his ex-wife again, to find out, for example, when Francisco started to behave differently. There is no guarantee of a new hearing, because she is in serious condition due to the burns and would only have survived because a neighbor removed her from the burning property.
The PF will also thoroughly examine Francisco’s cell phone, which was in a trailer near the Chamber of Deputies. According to an investigator, there will be a raid on the WhatsApp groups in which he was a member. Even people with whom he doesn’t have direct and individual conversations will have verified messages. This investigation, according to this investigator, should generate “great despair” among the targets.
Finally, the PF has already asked Alexandre de Moraes, who took on the responsibility of reporting on the investigation at the STF, to break Francisco’s tax, telematics and banking secrecy. Authorization for investigators to access your bank transactions, emails and social networks is expected this week.
The objective of the PF, in fact, is to continue the investigation, a new “witch hunt”, which will serve to discourage any new attack. The case is treated as terrorism, which led the corporation to summon police officers who know the matter to collaborate in the investigation.
Threats to the STF after the explosions
STF Judicial Police agents also cooperated with the investigation, not only detailing how the approach to Francisco occurred last Wednesday, but also passing on to the PF threats that reach the Court directly, via e-mails, messages or letters.
Images from more than 400 STF cameras are being analyzed to check whether anyone else approached or whether the perpetrator of the explosions had help from someone else along the way. One of the recordings held by the PF shows him arriving at the parking lot at 7:26 pm. The attack occurred at around 7:32 pm.
So far, no links have been found between Francisco and those involved in the invasion and depredation of the headquarters building on January 8, 2023. Since that episode, STF Security has already gathered around a thousand messages of violence directed at ministers; Only after the attack, there were at least 8 emails, with new threats and texts praising Francisco’s act.
As shown by People’s Gazette Last week, one of these emails contained the following message: “We clarify that Francisco Luiz, now in heaven together with his Father, was just one of the countless martyrs of our fight against you, the satanic scum of the STF. We will not rest until we eliminate Satan’s scum.”said the text, accompanied by a photo with religious books and a pistol.
The e-mail was sent by an anonymous author, from an account on the protonmail server, hosted abroad and which promises privacy to users – STF Security has already managed to do so, even so, with the help of the PF and the Ministry of Justice, track where messages like this come from.
Furthermore, the PF has already found hundreds of messages supporting Francisco on social media – which could encourage other attacks; and has already mapped new threats, but maintains strict secrecy about the targets of these investigations, precisely to avoid escapes or destruction of traces.
Another source of concern was the fact that, probably coincidentally, the attack occurred close to the G20 meeting, which brings together leaders of the world’s largest economies in Rio de Janeiro this week. The evidence found so far indicates that he chose November 13th as it preceded the celebration of the Proclamation of the Republic.
In any case, the news of the explosion stunned members of the Brazilian government and other international delegations who had already been in Rio since last week – the chosen form, with explosives attached to the body, recalls terrorist attacks that have already occurred in other parts of the world. Also drawing attention was the fact that Francisco was dressed in a jacket with playing card prints, a possible allusion to the villain Joker.
At the STF, the view of security guards and ministers is that Francisco wanted to set off explosions inside the headquarters building, which was full at the time of the attack. The trial session – on restrictions on police operations in favelas in Rio – had ended shortly before.
When the explosions occurred, only Barroso, Edson Fachin and Cristiano Zanin were in the headquarters building – the three were removed from the snack room, behind the plenary, by security guards. Moraes was already in his office, in a more protected annex.
Francisco carried with him four homemade bombs, made from PVC pipes with gunpowder and nails inside, as well as a timer. There was a suspicion that he could have set up bombs inside the STF – a photo of him was found in the plenary and images of him inside the Chamber – to detonate them from a distance. That is why the Court’s headquarters building was isolated during the night and Thursday morning for a complete sweep, in search of artifacts.
One hypothesis considered is that Francisco also wanted to kill other people with the explosions. But, as he was quickly surrounded, he abandoned his initial plan, threw one of the explosives into the square and threw himself on top. With him were found a blanket soaked in gasoline, which he tried to throw at the statue of Justice, and a fire extinguisher with pressurized gasoline, with which he could have launched flames of fire from a distance. Another three homemade bombs were found in a trailer near the Chamber. There were fireworks in the car parked at the scene.
The house he rented in Ceilândia, on the outskirts of Brasília, was, according to the police, “rigged”, that is, full of explosives ready to be detonated at the slightest touch. For investigators, the intention was precisely to kill police officers who entered the scene. The initial sweep was done with bomb disposal robots. The general director of the PF, Andrei Rodrigues, later reported that a drawer generated a “very serious explosion” when it was opened by one of these pieces of equipment.
On the bathroom mirror, the name of Débora Rodrigues, the woman who painted graffiti on the statue of Justice on January 8, 2023, was written in lipstick. “Please don’t waste lipstick! This is to make women beautiful. Shit statue if you use TNT”, said the message left by Francisco.
Because of this, Rodrigues asked that the investigation be in charge of Moraes, which was promptly met by the president of the STF, Luís Roberto Barroso.
The request for investigation arrived as a separate petition within the investigation opened in 2021 to investigate the acts against the Court that occurred on September 7, 2021. At the time, several trucks entered the Esplanada dos Ministérios. Intelligence agents warned that there were truck drivers willing to break through the Military Police blockade, in front of Itamaraty, to go down the Praça dos Três Poderes ramp and tear down the STF headquarters building.
Since then, the STF has invested in more security, which intensified after January 8, 2023. Currently, the camera monitoring system issues alerts as people approach the complex’s buildings, including annexes where servers work, where the ministers’ offices and the plenary chambers of the two classes of the Court are located.
After the attack, metal fences were reinstalled around the headquarters and visitor entry became stricter, with a fine-toothed comb over any material that enters through the X-ray.
