Brazil’s Bolsonaro Detained After Court Rules Supporters’ Vigil Posed Risk of Escape

Police have taken former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro into custody after the country’s highest court determined that he presented a “concrete flight risk” while under house arrest.

In an order issued on Nov. 22 and reviewed by The Epoch Times, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the detention was a preventative measure prompted by “new facts,” including an alleged plan by Bolsonaro to break his electronic ankle monitor and a public call for a vigil outside his home that could “allow for a possible escape.”

Bolsonaro was found guilty in September on attempted coup charges and sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison. He remains under house arrest pending appeal, and the detention came just days before the Supreme Court was expected to order him to begin serving his sentence.

According to Moraes, data from the center overseeing Bolsonaro’s monitoring showed signs that the former president intended to “break the electronic ankle bracelet to ensure success in his escape.” Such an attempt would be “facilitated by the confusion caused by the demonstration called by his son.”

Moraes was referring to Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president’s son and a sitting senator, who urged supporters to gather outside his father’s home on the night of Nov. 22.

“Are you going to fight for your country, or watch it all from your phone there on your sofa? I invite you to fight with us,” Flávio Bolsonaro said in a video message posted on X the previous day, saying that the vigil would allow Bolsonaro supporters to “pray for his health and for the return of democracy in our country.”

“The tumult caused by an illegal gathering of the convict’s supporters carries a strong risk of compromising the house arrest and other precautionary measures, allowing for his eventual escape,” Moraes wrote in his decision.

The judge also reiterated earlier concerns that Bolsonaro had explored the possibility of seeking political asylum in neighboring Argentina, where Argentine President Javier Milei has expressed sympathy for Jair Bolsonaro and his movement. Another of Bolsonaro’s sons, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, along with several close allies, has already left Brazil to avoid the reach of the courts.

In a statement to multiple Brazilian media outlets, Jair Bolsonaro’s legal team said that his detention caused “deep perplexity,” arguing that the planned vigil amounted to a peaceful “prayer meeting” protected under the Brazilian Constitution’s guarantee of religious freedom.

“Despite claims of very serious evidence of a possible escape, the former president was arrested at home, wearing an electronic ankle monitor and under police surveillance,” they said.

Jair Bolsonaro’s 27-year sentence stems from allegations that he orchestrated the Jan. 8, 2023, protests at Brazil’s federal government buildings. Authorities allege that the protests were part of a broader conspiracy to overturn the 2022 election results that brought Jair Bolsonaro’s left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to power.

In late July, the Supreme Court ordered a search of Jair Bolsonaro’s residence, required him to wear an ankle monitor, and imposed a nightly and weekend curfew. The court also barred him from using social media, contacting foreign diplomats, or approaching foreign embassies. His passport had already been confiscated.

Eduardo Bolsonaro, who is in the United States seeking Washington’s intervention to stop criminal proceedings against his father, condemned Moraes for escalating what he described as already excessive restrictions on the 71-year-old former president.

“This is the kind of escalation that history warns us about. When regimes fail to defeat their opponents politically, they attempt to do so physically,” he wrote on X.