Sao Paulo – The Supreme Court of Brazil ordered on Monday the house arrest of former President Jair Bolsonaro, in trial for allegedly master a blow plan to remain in office despite his defeat in the 2022 elections, a case that has reached the South American country when he faces a commercial war with the Trump administration.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who supervises the case against Bolsonaro before the Superior Court, said in his decision that the former 70 -year -old president had violated the precautionary measures imposed on him by publishing content in the social networks channels of his three legislators.
The trial of the extreme right leader is receiving renewed attention after the president of the United States, Donald Trump, directly linked a 50% tariff of Brazilian goods imported to the judicial situation of his ally. Trump has called for procedures a “witch hunt”, which causes nationalist reactions of the leaders of all branches of power in Brazil, including President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The case against Bolsonaro
Brazil prosecutors accuse Bolsonaro of leading a criminal organization that planned to revoke the elections, including plans to kill Lula and the judge of Moraes after the extreme right -wing leader lost his re -election offer in 2022.
Monday’s order followed one of the Superior Court last month that ordered Bolsonaro to use an electronic ankle monitor and imposed a curfew on his activities while the procedures are ongoing.
After the news of the arrest warrant, a Federal Police employee of Brazil told The Associated Press that federal agents had seized cell phones in Bolsonaro’s residence in the capital of Brasilia, as ordered by De Moraes in his decision. The employee spoke on condition of anonymity due to his lack of authorization to speak publicly about the matter.
Bolsonaro is expected to remain in Brasilia for his house arrest, since he is not allowed to travel. He also has a house in Rio de Janeiro, where he maintained his electoral base as a legislator for three decades. The former army captain is the fourth former president of Brazil to be arrested from the end of the country’s military government from 1964 to 1985, which Bolsonaro supported.
‘Flagrant respect’
The move of Brazilian justice occurs a day after tens of thousands of supporters of Bolsonaro took the streets in the cities of Sao Paulo and Río, begging that the Brazilian Congress forgives him and hundreds of others that are under trial or imprisoned by their roles in the destruction of government buildings in Brazilia on January 8 on January 8, 2023.
On Sunday, Bolsonaro went to the followers in Rio through the phone of one of his children, which De Moraes described as illegal.
“Flagrant disrespect towards caution measures was so obvious that the defendant’s son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, decided to eliminate the publication on his Instagram profile, with the aim of hiding legal transgression,” said De Moraes.
The lawyers of the former Brazilian president did not comment after the decision. Flávio Bolsonaro said in X that Brazil “is officially in a dictatorship” after his father’s house arrest.
“The pursuit of De Moraes against Bolsonaro has no limits!” The senator wrote.
De Moraes added in his ruling that Jair Bolsonaro, who ruled Brazil between 2019 and 2022, has disseminated messages with “clear content of breath and instigation of attacks against the Supreme Court and a flagrant support for foreign intervention in the Brazilian judicial trial,” probably a reference deviated to Trump’s support for Bolsonaro.
De Moraes also said that Bolsonaro “addressed the protesters gathered in Copacabana, in Río” on Sunday so that their supporters could “try to force the Supreme Court.”
Last week, the United States Treasury Department announced sanctions A de Moraes on the alleged suppression of freedom of expression and the current Bolsonaro trial.
Possible problems ahead
Creomar de Souza, a political risk analyst and political strategy of Dharma, a political consulting firm based in Brasilia, said the home arrest of Bolsonaro opens a new moment for the country’s opposition, which could accumulate steam in the fight against the re -election offer of Lula next year.
Now, De Souza said: “The 2026 election seems an agitation” and the political debate in Brazil will probably be divided between two key struggles.
“One is the effort of Bolsonaro’s supporters to stay strong on the right, regardless of whether he is pressing for the amnesty in Congress or get physically,” said the analyst. “The second is how Lula’s administration will try to demonstrate that the country has a government.”
“This is just the beginning,” he concluded.
The last decision of the Superior Court keeps Bolsonaro under ankle monitoring, only allows family members and lawyers to visit and take all the mobile phones of their home.
Lula was imprisoned for 580 days between 2018 and 2019 in a corruption conviction that was later discarded by the Supreme Court, citing the judge’s bias in the case.
Michel Temer, who became president after Dilma Rousseff was accused in 2016, was arrested for 10 days in 2019 in relation to an graft investigation, which later ended without a conviction.
Earlier this year, De Moraes ordered the arrest of President Fernando Collor, who was in 1992 to 1992 until he was accused. The former 75 -year -old president was convicted of money laundering and corruption in 2023 and now fulfills his sentence of more than eight years.
