Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested after allegedly tampering with his electronic ankle monitor, which he claimed he did “out of curiosity”. The 70-year-old was taken into custody by federal police on Saturday morning after a Supreme Court judge issued a preventive arrest warrant over fears he was poised to flee to a foreign embassy.
In a video released by the Supreme Court, Bolsonaro can be heard admitting to a security official that he used a soldering iron to damage the black tag. The device was shown badly burned on both sides but still attached to his ankle. The tampering occurred at 12.08am on Saturday, according to Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who ordered the arrest.
Bolsonaro had been living under house arrest in Brasília since August, after being sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for masterminding a military coup to prevent the 2022 election winner, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, from taking office. However, the court has yet to enforce his imprisonment pending appeals.
Justice Moraes cited concerns that a planned “vigil” by Bolsonaro supporters, called by his senator son Flávio Bolsonaro, could be used as a diversion to help the former president escape to a foreign embassy. Bolsonaro lives about 15 minutes from the US embassy and has previously sought asylum in Argentina and spent two nights at the Hungarian embassy in 2024.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers expressed “profound perplexity” at his detention in a 12-square-metre police bedroom and vowed to appeal, citing his “delicate” health. Meanwhile, Lula supporters celebrated the arrest, with Workers’ Party congressman Reimont Otoni saying, “The message to Brazil, and to the world, is that crime doesn’t pay.”
