Brazil Supreme Court upholds preventive arrest of Jair Bolsonaro

RIO DE JANEIRO (CN) — Following former President Jair Bolsonaro’s weekend arrest, Brazil’s Supreme Court on Monday unanimously upheld the preventive detention ordered after a purported escape attempt.

The court’s First Panel endorsed the order issued Saturday by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who converted Bolsonaro’s house arrest into preventive detention. In September, Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for his role in a plot to overturn the 2022 election.

The ruling is based largely on Bolsonaro’s attempt to tamper with his electronic ankle monitor, which he admitted to doing Saturday when officers inspected the device.

In a statement to the Federal Police, the former president said he had used a soldering iron on the monitor out of “curiosity.” During his custody hearing Sunday, he said he acted out of “a certain paranoia.” His defense argues the episode was caused by side effects of psychiatric medication rather than an attempt to flee.

According to de Moraes, the conduct amounted to a “willful and conscious violation” of the terms of his house arrest, breaking the trust required to maintain less restrictive measures.

He also cited the possibility that Bolsonaro might seek refuge at the U.S. Embassy amid a rally organized by his son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, outside the family’s condominium, which de Moraes said posed a risk to public order.

Lênio Streck, a legal theory professor at the University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos, said there is no doubt the unanimous ruling is “a technical decision, because it is an easy case.” In his view, the combination of attempting to break an electronic monitor and encouraging demonstrations constitutes clear grounds for preventive detention.

Rodrigo Sartoti, a constitutional law attorney, said he considers de Moraes’ decision “fully compatible with the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence.”

“In fact, in the former president’s case, the justice was even more cautious, because this was not the first violation of a precautionary measure,” he said.

Sartoti also said the recent escape of one of Bolsonaro’s allies to the U.S. will likely make “this final stage of the case and the future serving of the sentence even more rigorous.”

In September, federal deputy Alexandre Ramagem fled to the U.S. after being sentenced to 16 years in prison for taking part in the attempted coup.

Thúlio Guilherme Nogueira, a criminal lawyer and partner at São Paulo-based Drummond e Nogueira Advocacia Penal, said Bolsonaro’s defense is still trying to show the ankle monitor incident may have been triggered by a medication-related episode rather than a plan to flee.

“In that scenario, it would be legally possible and reasonable to restore the previous status, with electronic monitoring and specific treatment conditions,” he said.

Another point of contention cited by experts is the court’s own decision to allow former President Fernando Collor de Mello — convicted in 2023 and sentenced to 8 years and 10 months for passive corruption and money laundering — to serve his sentence at home on humanitarian grounds due to serious illnesses.

“The Collor case was a mistake. There is no legal basis for allowing Collor to stay at home under the circumstances in which it is happening,” Streck said. “There are two options: either the Collor case is corrected or the same benefit is granted to Bolsonaro. This is an issue the Supreme Court will have to address.”

With the case expected to become final in the coming days, Bolsonaro’s detention will shift from precautionary to punitive.

Nogueira outlined three possible scenarios: remaining in custody at Federal Police headquarters, transfer to a special unit of the Papuda prison complex — a penitentiary in Brasília that holds both common and high-profile inmates — or serving the sentence under house arrest.

“In the short term, the trend is for Bolsonaro to remain at the Federal Police facility, at least until next year,” he said. “In each new judicial review, however, his health conditions will be a decisive factor for any potential easing of restrictions.”

Courthouse News reporter Marília Marasciulo is based in Brazil.