Brazil’s federal police arrested former President Jair Bolsonaro preemptively on Saturday, days earlier than he was set to start his 27-year jail sentence for main a coup try, officers mentioned.
A detailed aide mentioned the embattled former chief was taken to the police drive headquarters within the capital, Brasilia, from his home arrest.
The drive mentioned in a brief assertion, which didn’t identify Bolsonaro, that it acted on the request of Brazil’s Supreme Court docket.
Neither Brazil’s federal police nor the Supreme Court docket supplied extra particulars.
Bolsonaro’s aide Andriely Cirino confirmed to The Related Press that the arrest came about round 6 a.m. on Saturday.
The 70-year-old former president was taken from his home in a gated neighborhood within the upscale Jardim Botanico neighborhood to the federal police headquarters, Cirino mentioned.
Bolsonaro was positioned below home arrest in early August, weeks earlier than he was convicted in his coup trial. His legal professionals have been pleading with Brazil’s Supreme Court docket to maintain him at dwelling to serve his sentence, citing his poor well being.
SERGIO LIMA/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
Like most of his colleagues, Supreme Court docket Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the coup case, hardly ever carries out selections on Saturdays, until there are safety dangers concerned.
Native media reported that Bolsonaro, who was Brazil’s president from 2019 to 2022, was anticipated to start serving his sentence someday subsequent week after the far-right chief exhausted all appeals of his conviction for main a coup try.
Saturday’s preemptive arrest doesn’t imply Bolsonaro will stay on the federal police headquarters to serve his sentence. Brazilian legislation requires that every one convicts begin their sentences in jail.
One of many former president’s sons, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, has been egging on supporters to take to the streets in protection of his father since Thursday.
A few of Bolsonaro’s supporters, who declare he’s being politically persecuted, are anticipated to rally exterior the federal police headquarters all through the weekend.
The previous president and several other of his allies have been convicted by a panel of Supreme Court docket justices for trying to overthrow Brazil’s democracy following his 2022 election loss to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Prosecutors mentioned the coup plot included plans to kill Lula and to encourage an rebellion in early 2023.
Bolsonaro was additionally discovered responsible on costs of main an armed legal group and trying the violent abolition of the democratic rule of legislation. Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing.
He stays a key determine in Brazilian politics, regardless of being ineligible to run once more not less than till 2030, after a separate ruling by Brazil’s high electoral courtroom. Polls present he can be a powerful candidate in subsequent yr’s vote if allowed to run.
Bolsonaro is an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has referred to as his trial a “witch hunt.” Bolsonaro was talked about in a July order by the U.S. administration elevating tariffs on a number of Brazilian exports by 50%. Trump on Friday dropped a lot of the greater tariffs on Brazilian exports.
