Brazil’s Ex-President Bolsonaro Arrested Over Alleged Plot To Avoid 27-Year Prison Sentence

SAO PAULO (AP) — Former president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro He was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of conspiring to avoid a 27-year prison sentence. leading the coup attempt.

Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de MoraesBolsonaro, who is overseeing the trial of Bolsonaro’s bid to retain the presidency following his 2022 defeat to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, ordered the preventive arrest after saying the far-right leader’s ankle monitor was breached at 12:08 a.m. Saturday.

Bolsonaro, 70, who is under house arrest, was ordered to wear the device on the grounds that he was a flight risk.

The former president, an ally of US President Donald Trump, was taken to the headquarters of the country’s federal police agency in the capital Brasilia. from his house.

Bolsonaro’s deputy, Andriely Cirino, confirmed to The Associated Press that the arrest took place around 6 a.m. Saturday.

The Supreme Court panel hearing Bolsonaro’s case will vote on de Moraes’ decision in an extraordinary session to be held on Monday. The same panel sentenced him to prison by a vote of 4 to 1 in September.

The preventive detention is a dramatic and unexpected development in the final phase of a long and divisive criminal case. De Moraes claimed the embattled leader could escape, as some of his allies did, just days before he was to begin his prison sentence. The judge cited a video posted by Bolsonaro’s son urging supporters to protest outside the property where his father was staying on Saturday.

“(This) information indicates the prisoner’s intention to break the ankle tracking device to ensure his escape is successful, which would be easier due to the confusion that would be caused by a demonstration organized by his son,” De Moraes said.

The judge said there was a possibility that Bolsonaro could flee to the US embassy in Brazil. The Supreme Court judge also mentioned other defendants in the coup case and political allies of the former president who left Brazil to avoid prison.

“It is located approximately 13 kilometers (8 miles) from where the United States embassy is located, a 15-minute drive away,” De Moraes said. Who were sanctioned? by the Trump administration.

In August, Brazilian federal police found messages linking Bolsonaro to a request for political asylum in Argentina, where his ally Javier Milei is president.

According to local media reports, Bolsonaro, who was Brazil’s president from 2019 to 2022 and remains a major political player, is expected to begin serving his sentence next week after all appeals against his conviction are over.

De Moraes said Bolsonaro’s arrest “should have been done with full respect for the dignity of former President Jair Messias Bolsonaro, without the use of handcuffs and without any explanation in the media.”

Cirino said the former president was taken from his home in a gated community in the upscale Jardim Botanico neighborhood to the federal police headquarters.

In his decision, De Moraes mentioned a video in which Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, one of the former president’s sons, encouraged his supporters to take to the streets. A vigil was planned outside Bolsonaro’s home later Saturday.

As of Saturday morning, there were no protesters outside the federal police headquarters in Brazil. But those opposed to the former president were celebrating online and planning parties later in the day in Brazil’s major cities.

In his decision, de Moraes wrote, “The video shot by Flávio Bolsonaro shows that there are no limits in the criminal organization’s attempt to create chaos and conflict in this country, a complete disrespect for democracy, by encouraging disrespect for the text of the constitution, the judicial decision and (democratic) institutions.”

“Brazil’s democracy has reached sufficient maturity to repel and prosecute deplorable illegal attempts to defend the criminal organization responsible for the attempted coup in Brazil,” he added.

Bolsonaro and several of his allies were convicted by a panel of Supreme Court justices for attempting to overthrow Brazilian democracy following his 2022 election defeat. Prosecutors said the coup plot included plans to kill Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and de Moraes.

Bolsonaro was also convicted on charges of leading an armed criminal group and attempting to overthrow the democratic rule of law through violence. He denies any wrongdoing.

Fabio Wajngarten, Bolsonaro’s former press aide and lawyer, said the former president’s arrest was a “terrible stain on institutions.”

Speaking in a video published on X, Wajngarten added: “It’s a shame. I hope this will be reviewed soon.” He claimed that Bolsonaro’s ankle monitoring device was working perfectly as of Saturday morning.

“How can something that is broken, violated, function normally nine hours later?” he wrote. “The President had dinner (soup) with his four brothers and his brother-in-law yesterday, took medicine for hiccups, felt sleepy, and lay down around 10 p.m. None of his sons were home.”

Sóstenes Cavalcante, Bolsonaro’s party leader in the lower house, accused de Moraes of showing “psychopathy of the highest order.”

“We will always be with you. Stay strong,” he said in a video shared with the AP. “We will give the necessary answer”

Former First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro vowed in an Instagram post that Bolsonaro supporters “will not give up on our nation,” adding: “I believe in God’s justice. As we have seen, human justice can no longer endure.” Her husband was outside Brazil when he was arrested at home.

Bolsonaro was placed under house arrest in early August, weeks before he was sentenced. His lawyers had been pleading with Brazil’s Supreme Court to keep him at home to serve out his sentence, citing poor health, but Brazilian law requires all convicts to begin their sentences in prison.

Creomar de Souza, a political analyst at Dharma Political Risk and Strategy, a Brasilia-based political consulting firm, said de Moraes’ move will have an impact on next year’s presidential elections, where Lula is seeking re-election and Bolsonaro is already barred from running.

“They had the idea of ​​turning the 2026 elections into a referendum on Bolsonaro. And for that to happen, they needed actions, they needed to build the view that Bolsonaro was a martyr and an effective people’s leader,” de Souza told the AP. “At the end of the day, this shows the Bolsonaro family that they need to create their own alternative for the 2026 elections.”

Associated Press writer Gabriela Sá Pessoa contributed to this report.