Met Police handcuff peaceful anti-Bolsonaro protester at demonstration in London

Right-wing Brazilian president accused of turning visit to Queen’s funeral into political rally

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro signs a book of condolence in London on 18 September, 2022. (Getty Images)

A peaceful protester demonstrating against the Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was handcuffed by the Metropolitan Police on Sunday afternoon, it has emerged.

A video of the incident was subsequently used as propaganda by the far-right in Brazil.

Ali Rocha, a producer who has dual British and Brazilian citizenship, was protesting with a friend outside the Brazilian ambassador’s home when she was stopped by police a little after 1pm.

The force said “they had reason to suspect” that the two women may have been “in possession of items to commit criminal damage”.

“One of the women was initially placed in handcuffs to safely facilitate the search after she repeatedly ignored instructions not to place her hands in her pockets. The handcuffs were subsequently removed,” the Met Police added.

However, no items of concern were found on either of them.

Ms Rocha, a campaigner who co-founded the group Brazil Matters, told The Guardian she was demonstrating against what she called Mr Bolsonaro’s “disrespectful” attempt to gain political capital out of attending the Queen’s funeral.

With only two weeks to go until Brazil’s elections, the incumbent leader lags far behind his leftwing rival, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in the polls.

The 50-year-old said she was “very shocked and shaken” when she was handcuffed, adding that she now felt “angry and disgusted” by the incident.

The producer, who was dressed in a red t-shirt at the time, said a police officer hurt her by grabbing hold of her wrist “violently”.

“He kept saying: ‘We’ve received some intel that someone in a red T-shirt was going to commit criminal damage...so I’m going to search you and you are detained,” she said.

“I was in a state of shock...we knew the police were on high alert because of the funeral and all the state leaders that were here but we never expected anything like that.”

Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of the president, tweeted a clip of the handcuffing to his millions of followers on social media.

He falsely said she had been arrested, claiming this happened during her attempt “to disrupt a pro-Bolsonaro protest”.