BRASILIA: Brazil’s Supreme Court put former President Jair Bolsonaro under house arrest on Monday (Aug 4) ahead of his trial for an alleged coup plot, underscoring the court’s resolve despite escalating tariffs and sanctions from United States President Donald Trump.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the target of US Treasury sanctions last week, issued the arrest order against Bolsonaro. His decision cited a failure to comply with restraining orders he had imposed on Bolsonaro for allegedly courting Trump’s interference in the case.
Bolsonaro is on trial before the Supreme Court on charges he conspired with allies to violently overturn his 2022 electoral loss to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Trump has referred to the case as a “witch hunt” and called it grounds for a 50 per cent tariff on Brazilian goods taking effect on Wednesday.
The Monday order from Moraes also banned Bolsonaro from using a cell phone or receiving visits, except for his lawyers and people authorised by the court.
A press representative for Bolsonaro confirmed he was placed under house arrest on Monday evening at his Brasilia residence by police who seized his cell phone.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers said in a statement they would appeal the decision, arguing the former president had not violated any court order.
In an interview with Reuters last month, Bolsonaro called Moraes a “dictator” and said the restraining orders against him were acts of “cowardice.”
Some Bolsonaro allies have worried that Trump’s tactics may be backfiring in Brazil, compounding trouble for Bolsonaro and rallying public support behind Lula’s leftist government.
However, Sunday demonstrations by Bolsonaro supporters – the largest in months – show that Trump’s tirades and sanctions against Moraes have also fired up the far-right former army captain’s political base.
Bolsonaro appeared virtually at a protest in Rio de Janeiro via phone call to his son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, in what some saw as the latest test of his restraining orders.
On Monday, Senator Bolsonaro told CNN Brasil that Monday’s order from Moraes was “a clear display of vengeance” for the US sanctions against the judge, adding: “I hope the Supreme Court can put the brakes on this person (Moraes) causing so much upheaval”.
The judge’s orders, including the restraining orders under penalty of arrest, have been upheld by the wider court.
Those orders and the larger case before the Supreme Court came after two years of investigations into Bolsonaro’s role in an election-denying movement that culminated in riots by his supporters that rocked Brasilia in January 2023. That unrest drew comparisons to the Jan 6, 2021 riots at the US Capitol after Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat.
