The judicial vice suddenly tightened on Monday on the former Brazilian far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, assigned to house even before the outcome of his trial for alleged coup attempt, where he faces more than 40 years in prison.
Already ineligible until 2030, the former head of state (2019-2022), 70, finds himself isolated and hampered like never before. And this despite the support of American president Donald Trump, who launched a trade war against Brazil in retaliation for an alleged “witch hunt” against his ally.
The house arrest of Jair Bolsonaro, now confined to his home in Brasilia, was taken by judge Alexandre de Moraes, his intimate enemy in charge of his trial at the Supreme Court. Any new misstep will “immediately a pre -trial order,” warned the magistrate.
Lacking a “repeated non-compliance with measures” taken against him, the magistrate criticizes in particular Jair Bolsonaro for having braved a ban on expressing himself on social networks. In question: remote interventions of the ex-president during demonstrations Sunday across the country, who were then relayed by personalities from his camp on digital platforms. The retired army captain was the absent of these rallies.
Electronic bracelet
Aimed by an investigation for alleged obstacle to his trial, Jair Bolsonaro has been forced in this context since mid-July to wear an electronic bracelet and stay at home evening and weekend. He is also forbidden to express himself on social networks, directly or through third parties.
On Monday, it was also prohibited for any use of a mobile phone, its own or that of others. During a search at home, several aircraft were seized, police announced. Apart from his lawyers, any visit to his home is also prohibited, unless prior authorization.
“Justice is blind, but it is not silly,” insisted judge Moraes, a magistrate as powerful as divisive.
The champion of the conservative current in the first economic power of Latin America must know the epilogue of his historic trial in the coming weeks. With seven of his collaborators, he is accused of having attempted to ensure his “authoritarian maintenance in power” despite his defeat against the current left president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2022.
“Psychopath”
The spectacular support of the Trump administration has not previously arranged its belongings. On July 30, the US Treasury Department inflicted financial sanctions on the Moraes judge. On the same day, President Trump formalized a 50% customs surcharge on a good part of Brazilian exports to the United States. The measure will come into force on Wednesday.
Instigator of American pressures, a son of the ex-president, the deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, denounced on the platform X an “abuse of power to silence the leader of the opposition”. For him, judge Moraes is an “psychopath out of control”.
The magistrate criticizes in particular Jair Bolsonaro the fact that a telephone exchange with his eldest son Flavio Bolsonaro during the demonstrations in his support on Sunday was relayed on social networks. At the time of this call, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro harangued thousands of demonstrators in Rio de Janeiro.
“The blatant non-compliance with measures was so obvious that the accused’s son decided to remove the publication of his profile on Instagram, in order to obscure the transgression,” said the judge. For him, the former president is a repeat offender: the ban on using social networks – criticized beyond even the Bolsonarist movement, among the press and the lawyers – had been bypassed the first time after the imposition of the electronic bracelet. He then warned that the cleaver would fall in the event of rehearsal.
Ineligible for disinformation on the electronic voting system used in 2022, the ex-president also says to hope to compete in the presidential election of 2026. Lula, 79, has already displayed his desire to run for a fourth term, if he is “100% on the health”. He himself was incarcerated for 580 days in 2018 and 2019 after being convicted of passive corruption and laundering. A conviction later canceled by the Supreme Court, for vice of form.