1 of 3 | Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro, pictured speaking before the country’s National Congress in March, has been arrested for allegedly attempting to flee before he is jailed for attempting a coup after the 2022 presidential election. File Photo by Andre Birges/EPA-EFE
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was detained early Saturday in Brasilia because of a possible “attempted escape” to an embassy days before he was to begin his 27-year prison sentence for leading a coup attempt.
Brazil’s Supreme Court issued a preventive arrest warrant that had been sought by police for Bolonaro, 70, who had been under house arrest with an ankle monitor since early August.
Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president from 2019 to 2022, is being held in a Federal Police station in Brasilia and will undergo a custody hearing on Sunday, the BBC reported.
He is scheduled to begin serving his sentence as the court reviews his appeals.
There was the possibility of “relocation to embassies near the residence, considering that the investigations revealed a history of planning to request asylum through a diplomatic representation,” the court said.
In August, police obtained a document during a raid that Bolsonaro had planned to seek asylum in Argentina last year. And days after the operation, he spent two nights at the Hungarian Embassy in Brazil in an apparent bid for asylum.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers planned to appeal the arrest, denying that Bolsonaro was attempting to flee.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who wrote the order, said “new facts” had come to light about the far-right former president.
His intention was “to break the electronic ankle bracelet to ensure success in his escape” that would be “facilitated by the confusion caused by the demonstration called by his son” outside his apartment complex.
The judge described it as a “high possibility of an attempted escape.”
The vigil planned for Saturday night was organized by his oldest son, Flavio, a senator.
“Are you going to fight for your country or just watch everything on your phone on your couch at home?” he asked his followers in a social media video.
The court also said it was informed that there was a violation of Bolsonaro’s electronic monitoring equipment early Saturday.
“The information confirms the convict’s intention to break the electronic ankle bracelet in order to ensure the success of his escape, facilitated by the confusion caused by the demonstration,” the court said.
Bolsonaro’s sentence was to begin next week after all appeals were exhausted.
“The fact is that the former president was arrested at his home, with an electronic ankle monitor and under police surveillance. Furthermore, Jair Bolsonaro’s health is delicate and his imprisonment may put his life at risk,” his lawyers said in a statement.
And they noted the protest is protected by law.
On Sept. 11, Bolsonaro was sentenced and convicted in a plot to remain in power after losing the 2022 election to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Four of five justices convicted him on all five counts.
Aside from the coup attempt, Bolsonaro was found guilty of taking part in an armed criminal organization, attempting to abolish Brazil’s democratic order by force, committing violent acts against state institutions and damaging protected public property after his supporters stormed government buildings on Jan. 8, 2023.
He is barred from running for public office until 2060, eight years after his sentence would end, when he would 105 years old.
On Friday, Bolsonaro’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest with electronic monitoring. He would be able to leave for medical treatment, including for pulmonary infections and other ailments.
Earlier this month, high-ranking military officials and a federal police officer were sentenced to prison after the Supreme Court justices found them guilty of attempting a coup and plotting to kill Lula da Silva.
“The message to Brazil, and to the world, is that crime doesn’t pay,” Reimont Otoni, a Workers’ party congressman and backer of Otono.
Otoni noted Bolsonaro’s plot included a conspiracy to assassinate Lula.
Also, high court justices knew about plans to assassinate Lula’s vice presidential running mate, and to arrest and execute de Moraes.
The conspiracy failed to get the backing of the army and air force commanders, and Lula was sworn in on Jan. 1, 2023.
One week later, supporters stormed and vandalized government buildings in the capital, Brasilia.
Bonsonaro, who has been referred to as the “Trump of the tropics,” has contended it was a “witch hunt.” U.S. President Donald Trump also calls it a “witch hunt” and punished the nation for the “disgrace” of how Bolsonaro has been treated, as well as for an “unfair trade relationship.”
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