Brazil’s Supreme Court has agreed to include former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro in an investigation into an attack on government buildings in Brasilia.
It is the first time that Mr Bolsonaro has been implicated as a possible perpetrator of the January 8 riots.
It comes days after Mr Bolsonaro posted a video questioning the legitimacy of October’s presidential election.
Prosecutors said Mr Bolsonaro had instigated the crime by making such claims.
He demanded the Supreme Court on Friday to include the former president in the investigation.
Bolsonaro’s video claims that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was not voted for but was chosen by the Supreme Court and Brazil’s electoral authority.
While the video was posted after Sunday’s riots and later deleted, the prosecutor general’s office argued that its content was sufficient to justify an earlier investigation into Mr. Bolsonaro’s conduct.
Thousands of radical Bolsonaro supporters, who continue to claim the election was rigged, stormed the country’s Supreme Court, Congress and the presidential palace on Sunday.
They had been camped out for weeks in and around the capital, BrasÃlia, calling for a military coup.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bolsonaro has been admitted to a Florida hospital with stomach pains, his wife said.
After refusing to participate in the transition of power to Lula, he left Brazil for the United States in late December.
