Former Brazil president Bolsonaro put in federal custody after government coup trial News
Janine Moraes / Câmara dos Deputados, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Former Brazil president Bolsonaro put in federal custody after government coup trial

Brazil’s federal police arrested Saturday former president Bolsonaro and took him into custody under preventive detention. Bolsonaro had been under house arrest since August 8, after charges brought by the government for an attempted coup d’état and attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law.

Despite applying to the Federal Supreme Court for a prolonged house arrest, the police executed an arrest warrant issued by the court on Friday, as a consequence of the attempt to remove his ankle monitor. A custody hearing held on Sunday determined “no abuse or irregularity” by the police, while Bolsonaro confirmed that, although he attempted to remove his ankle monitor on Friday, he had no intention of escaping.

On November 22, 2024, the federal police indicted Jair Bolsonaro alongside several other ex-Bolsonaro ministers. After a two-year investigation, a report was sent to the Federal Supreme Court, alleging a manipulation and attempted reversal of the 2022 presidential election as well as incitement of violence against the government in the form of a coup on January 8, 2023.

Based on the February 18 investigation, Attorney General Paulo Gonet Brano brought a joint complaint against 34 individuals, including Bolsonaro. Brano, five months later in July. Gonet put forward the final charges on July 15, with a trial being due in early September. Quickly after the start of the trial in front of the First Panel of the Federal Supreme Court, mass protests erupted in Brazil in both support and opposition of the proceedings against the former president.

On September 11, Bolsonaro, along with several co-conspirators, was sentenced to 27 years and three months of imprisonment, with the official judgment spanning close to 2,000 pages. While celebrations in Brazil erupted following the sentencing, the US government announced sanctions against Justice Alexandre de Moraes and individuals in close connection to him, alleging an abuse of judicial authority following an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump.

Following the sentence, on November 16, the court rejected an appeal presented by Bolsonaro’s legal team, the so-called declaration embargos, failing to maintain that Bolsonaro actively discouraged a coup. Counsel in Bolsonaro’s defence team, Paulo Cunha Bueno, a day before the arrest, claimed that the severe medical conditions of Bolsonaro, such as Parkinson’s disease and the consequences of a knife attack in 2018, would necessitate permanent care that is supposedly impossible if the former president were to be deprived of his house arrest.

Bueno additionally hinted at the possibility of filing further appeals before the Sunday deadline. In the instance that no appeal was filed, or the possible appeals are rejected, the judgment will be final with execution of the 27 years deemed to start.

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