A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has ordered the former president Jair Bolsonaro to be placed under house arrest for breaching “preventative measures” imposed ahead of his trial for an alleged coup attempt. The ruling by Justice Alexandre de Moraes was immediately condemned by the United States.
According to the decision on Monday, Bolsonaro breached a ban on using social media, which was imposed last month alongside an order to wear an electronic ankle tag. Moraes wrote that during demonstrations in support of Bolsonaro on Sunday, the former leader used allies' social media accounts to share messages containing “clear encouragement and incitement to attack the Supreme Federal Court, and overt support for foreign intervention in Brazil's judiciary”.
Moraes ordered Bolsonaro to remain under house arrest in the compound where he rents a mansion in Brasília, with visits restricted to close family and lawyers. Federal police were instructed to collect all mobile phones at the property, and authorised visitors will not be allowed to use phones or record videos. Bolsonaro's lawyers said they would appeal, arguing he had not violated any court order.
The US State Department's bureau of western hemisphere affairs said on X that Justice Moraes, now a US-sanctioned human rights abuser, “continues to use Brazil's institutions to silence opposition and threaten democracy”. It added: “Let Bolsonaro speak!”
Bolsonaro is accused of leading a plot to overturn the results of the last election, in which Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeated him. The trial is expected to conclude later this year, and Bolsonaro faces a potential sentence of more than 40 years in prison. During a Sunday protest, one of his sons, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, held a phone to a microphone so the crowd could hear the former president speak; the senator later deleted a video of the incident, which Moraes called a “blatant” attempt to conceal the breach.
