In a move immediately condemned by the US, a Brazilian supreme court judge has ordered the house arrest of former president Jair Bolsonaro for breaching \u201cpreventative measures\u201d that were imposed ahead of his trial for an alleged coup attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the ruling on Monday by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the far-right leader breached a ban on using social media which was imposed last month, when he was also ordered to wear an electronic ankle tag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moraes wrote that as demonstrators took to the streets in several cities across the country on Sunday in support of the former president, Bolsonaro used the social media accounts of allies to share messages containing \u201cclear encouragement and incitement to attack the Supreme Federal Court, and overt support for foreign intervention in Brazil\u2019s judiciary\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is no doubt the precautionary measure was breached,\u201d Moraes wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The justice, who was sanctioned by the US last week over his role in the Bolsonaro case, ordered that Bolsonaro be placed under house arrest in the palm-lined compound where Bolsonaro rents a mansion in the south of the capital, Bras\u00edlia, with visits restricted to close family members and lawyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Federal police were instructed to collect all mobile phones available at the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Visitors authorised to see the former president will not be allowed to use mobile phones, take photos or record videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A press representative for Bolsonaro confirmed he was placed under house arrest on Monday evening at his Brasilia residence by police who seized his mobile phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bolsonaro\u2019s lawyers said in a statement they would appeal against the decision, arguing the former president had not violated any court order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US state department, in a statement issued by its bureau of western hemisphere affairs on X, condemned the judge\u2019s ruling and said it would \u201chold accountable all those aiding and abetting sanctioned conduct\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJustice Moraes, now a US-sanctioned human rights abuser, continues to use Brazil\u2019s institutions to silence opposition and threaten democracy,\u201d the bureau said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPutting even more restrictions on Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s ability to defend himself in public is not a public service. Let Bolsonaro speak!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moraes has said Trump\u2019s tariffs on Brazil and the \u201cspurious\u201d sanctions targeting him and other supreme court justices were part of an \u201cillegal and immoral\u201d ruse to obstruct justice that was being engineered by a group of Brazilian \u201ctraitors\u201d who had lobbied foreign authorities to carry out \u201chostile acts\u201d against the country\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his ruling on Monday, Moraes noted that despite being banned from using social media, the far-right leader took part by phone in a pro-Bolsonaro demonstration on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. During the rally, one of his politician sons, senator Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro, held a phone to the microphone so the crowd could hear the former president speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The senator himself had posted a video on social media showing Bolsonaro addressing supporters by phone \u2013 but later deleted the footage. Moraes argued that the deletion was a \u201cblatant\u201d attempt to conceal the breach of court-ordered restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe flagrant disregard for the preventative measures was so obvious that \u2013 it bears repeating \u2013 the defendant\u2019s own son, senator Fl\u00e1vio Nantes Bolsonaro, decided to delete the post from his Instagram account in order to conceal the legal transgression,\u201d Moraes wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The arrest order is part of an ongoing supreme court case in which Bolsonaro is accused of leading a plot to overturn the results of the last election, in which current president Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva defeated the former army captain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trial is expected to conclude later this year, with Bolsonaro facing a potential sentence of more than 40 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBolsonaro is being arrested gradually,\u201d said political commentator Fernando Gabeira on GloboNews. \u201cThe supreme court, consciously or not, is leading him to prison in stages \u2013 to avoid a major shock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Brasil\u00eda, the political temperature has been rising in recent days, with thousands of Bolsonaro supporters on Sunday rallying outside the central bank to offer their support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of those protesters urged the US president Donald Trump \u2013 who recently hit Brazil with 50% tariffs in retribution for the alleged \u201cwitch hunt\u201d against Bolsonaro \u2013 to take further action to help save their embattled leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to give Trump a hug and tell him: thank you for worrying about us,\u201d said \u00c1lvaro Junior, 64, one Bolsonaro supporter who was carrying a sign that read: \u201cThank you, Trump\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Metal barricades have been erected around the supreme court, foreign ministry and congress in anticipation of possible rightwing protests or violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump further stoked the political flames last week by slapping sanctions on Moraes, who the US secretary of the treasury, Scott Bessent, accused of being \u201cresponsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights and politicized prosecutions \u2013 including against former president Jair Bolsonaro\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lindovaldo Ribeiro Paulo, a 43-year-old in a red Maga cap, hailed the sanctions on Moraes, saying: \u201cWe feel even more admiration and even love for the American people now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Monday\u2019s ruling, Moraes said Bolsonaro had \u201crepeated his unlawful conduct in an even more severe and defiant manner\u201d, continuing to \u201curge and incite a foreign head of state to take measures aimed at unlawfully interfering with the normal course of judicial proceedings \u2013 in an attempt to generate social pressure on Brazilian authorities, in flagrant violation of national sovereignty\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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