Brazilian police have claimed in court documents that they have found a document on the mobile phone of former president Jair Bolsonaro suggesting he had planned to flee to Argentina ahead of his judgment for allegedly plotting a military coup.
The far-right populist is facing a jail term of over 40 years when Brazil’s supreme court convenes next month to decide whether he is guilty of conspiring to overturn the result of the 2022 presidential election, which Bolsonaro lost to his leftwing opponent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro denies the charges but some legal and political experts believe the weight of evidence means his conviction and a heavy sentence are virtually guaranteed.
On Wednesday, federal police investigators filed a 170-page report to the supreme court claiming to have found a document that was saved on the ex-president’s phone in February 2024 – two days after his passport was seized as a result of the coup investigation. In the report – which was reviewed by the Guardian – police said the document indicated he was planning to seek political asylum in Argentina, which is governed by his far-right ally Javier Milei.
“In my country of origin I am being persecuted for essentially political reasons and crimes,” Bolsonaro’s alleged draft asylum request claims, describing the former president as “a politically persecuted person”.
The undated and unsigned letter was addressed to “the most excellent president of Argentina Javier Gerardo Miliei [sic]”. It claimed Bolsonaro was “facing imminent arrest” – something the asylum request said would be “unjust, illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional”.
An Argentine government source told the Reuters news agency that Milei’s office had not received a letter.
Bolsonaro, who governed Brazil from 2019 until the end of 2022, insists he hopes to challenge Lula in next year’s presidential election, despite having already been barred from running by the supreme court for spreading disinformation. He is currently living under house arrest in the capital, Brasília, after the supreme court found he had violated a court order forbidding him from using social media.
In their report to the supreme court, federal police alleged the letter indicated that Bolsonaro had “planned to flee the country, in order to prevent the law being enforced”.
The accusation that Bolsonaro had planned to flee Brazil for Argentina came as federal police formally accused the ex-president and his congressman son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, of trying to interfere in Bolsonaro’s upcoming judgment by encouraging US officials to pressure the supreme court. A formal accusation is a prelude to charges being brought. The judgement is due to start on 2 September and end on 12 September.
Eduardo Bolsonaro moved to the US in February and has spent recent months lobbying Donald Trump’s administration – with some success – to pile pressure on Brazil’s supreme court justices and President Lula’s government over his father’s trial.
In July Trump slapped 50% tariffs on Brazilian imports in retaliation for what he called a “witch-hunt” against Bolsonaro and announced sanctions against Alexandre de Moraes, the supreme court judge presiding over Bolsonaro’s trial.
Eight of Brazil’s 11 supreme court judges, including Moraes, have been stripped of their US visas, as have the wife and 10-year-old daughter of one of Lula’s closest allies, the health minister Alexandre Padilha.
“It’s really a political execution that they’re trying to do with Bolsonaro. I think that’s terrible,” Trump told reporters last week.
In other developments on a dramatic day for Brazilian politics, Silas Malafaia, a powerful and wealthy evangelical pastor who is one of Bolsonaro’s most vocal cheerleaders, was questioned by police after flying back from Portugal to Rio.
Malafaia, who is also being investigated by federal police over suspicions he too tried to influence the outcome of Bolsonaro’s trial, has now been banned from leaving the country, communicating with Bolsonaro and his son Eduardo and ordered to surrender his passports.
The police report to the supreme court also exposed the foul-mouthed infighting that appears to be playing out between members of the Bolsonaro clan and key supporters in the lead-up to the conclusion of the ex-president’s judgment.
In one WhatsApp exchange found on Jair Bolsonaro’s phone – which was seized as part of federal police investigations – Eduardo Bolsonaro reacts to an interview in which his father criticized him, writing in all capitals: “Go and fuck yourself you fucking ingrate!”
In another message, from Malafaia to Jair Bolsonaro, the firebrand church leader attacks Eduardo Bolsonaro for publicly celebrating Trump’s tariffs on Brazilian imports. “I’m sorry, president. This son of yours Eduardo is an inexperienced prick who is handing the nationalist discourse to Lula and the left ... a complete idiot. I’m fuming!”
In a statement, Eduardo Bolsonaro criticised the police for “leaking private, absolutely normal conversations”. He called the move “shameful” and politically motivated.
Polls suggest Lula has received a boost in the polls after Trump’s attempts to pressure Brazil’s institutions, with more than 70% of Brazilians opposed to the US president’s actions and only 21% supporting them.
