
Image source, Bloomberg via Getty Images
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- Author, Writing
- Author's title, BBC News
The Supreme Court of Brazil ordered on Monday the house arrest of former right -wing president Jair Bolsonaro.
The ex -president is facing a trial for allegedly participating in a coup conspiracy after losing the 2022 elections, something he denies.
President Donald Trump used the trial against Bolsonaro, which he describes as “witch hunting” as justification to impose 50% tariffs on some Brazilian products last Thursday, despite the fact that the United States has a commercial surplus with Brazil.
The judge in charge of Bolsonaro's investigation, Alexandre de Moraes, said that the decision to arrest him is due to the former president did not comply with the precautionary measures imposed last month, including refraining from making publications on social networks.
Moraes, who was sanctioned by the US government, said Bolsonaro had used the social networks of his allies, including those of his children, to disseminate messages inciting attacks against the Supreme Court and foreign intervention in the Brazilian judiciary.
The United States condemned this Monday the decision of the Supreme Court of Brazil
“Judge Moraes, now sanctioned by the United States as a human rights rapist, continues to use Brazilian institutions to silence the opposition and threaten democracy,” said the Office of Affairs of the Western Hemisphere in an X publication.
“Imposing more restrictions on the ability of Jair Bolsonaro to defend himself in public is not a public service. What Bolsonaro speaks!”
The manifestations of discord
Image source, AFP via Getty Images
On Sunday, demonstrations were held in favor of Bolsonaro in several Brazilian cities. One of his children, Flávio, who is a senator, briefly put his father on the phone speaker at the crowd in Rio de Janeiro.
As reported, he subsequently published a video, which he later deleted, from his father on the other side of the call by sending a message to his supporters.
Deputy Nikolas Ferreira also communicated with the former president during the demonstrations in São Paulo.
Therefore, Judge Moraes points out that Bolsonaro breached the restrictions imposed on him.
In his decision on Monday, Moraes also prohibited the former president from receiving visits, except for lawyers or persons authorized by the Supreme Court, and using the mobile phone directly or through third parties.
Authorized visitors cannot use cell phone, take photos or record videos.
He had already been ordered to take an anklet, stay at home at night and not contact his son Eduardo Bolsonaro, who has come to US officials in his name.
These restrictions were imposed due to accusations that the former president was instigating Donald Trump to interfere in the case.
In May, the Attorney General's Office (PGR) said that Eduardo Bolsonaro, who currently lives in the United States, had made public statements “with an intimidating tone” and publications in social networks that sought that the US government imposed sanctions on Brazilian officials related to the trial.
Last week, the US government applied against Judge Alexandre de Moraes the Magnitsky Global Law – one of the most severe sanctions that are there to punish foreigners accused of serious violations of human rights and corruption.
“Brazil is no longer a democracy”: Eduardo Bolsonaro
Image source, Reproduction
At the request of the Supreme Court, the Federal Police also executed an order of search and confiscation of cell phones.
“The undercover participation of Jair Messias Bolsonaro, preparing prefabricated material for dissemination in social manifestations and networks, clearly showed that he continued with his illegal conduct of trying to coerce the Supreme Federal Court and obstruct justice, in flagrant contempt of precautionary measures previously imposed,” Judge Moraes wrote in his order.
For Moraes, “the behaviors of Jair Messias Bolsonaro, deliberately disrupting the decisions of this Supreme Court, demonstrate the need and relevance of more severe measures to avoid the continuous criminal reiteration of the accused.”
Before the news of his father's arrest, Eduardo Bolsonaro said on social networks that the decision was “without crime, without evidence, without trial.”
He added: “Brazil is no longer a democracy. The world needs to realize that.”
Bolsonaro is the fourth Brazilian president arrested, of the eight leaders that the country has had since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985.
In addition to Bolsonaro, the current President Lula and former presidents Michel Temer and Fernando Collor de Melo were arrested.
Former Presidents José Sarney, Itamar Franco and Fernando Henrique Cardoso never went to prison. And former president Dilma Rousseff was arrested long before assuming the presidency, by the military dictatorship.
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