Brazil’s former far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been arrested at his villa in the capital, Brasília.
In a brief statement, federal police confirmed officers had executed a preventive arrest warrant at the request of the supreme court. Brazilian media reports said the politician had been taken to a federal police base, seven miles from the presidential palace Bolsonaro occupied from 2019 until 2022, when he lost the election and tried to launch a military coup.
It was not immediately clear why the court had ordered the preventive arrest of the 70-year-old former president, although local reports said it had been done to “maintain public order”.
One of the former president’s lawyers, Celso Vilardi, confirmed to AFP on Saturday: “He has been imprisoned, but I don’t know why.”
In September, Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for masterminding a coup to stop the 2022 election winner, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, taking office. However, the court has yet to order Bolsonaro’s imprisonment for those crimes while a series of legal procedures and appeals play out. Bolsonaro’s detention on Saturday was reportedly not directly linked to his coup conviction.
Bolsonaro supporters had been planning to hold a “vigil” on Saturday night outside the luxury condominium where their leader has lived under house arrest since August.
The protest had been called by Bolsonaro’s senator son, Flávio Bolsonaro, in a social media video: “Are you going to fight for your country or are you going to watch everything on your mobile phone while sitting at home on your sofa?” He invited Bolsonaristas to “come and fight with us”.
Speculation that Bolsonaro’s arrest was imminent has reached fever pitch in recent days with allies voicing outrage at the prospect of the former president being sent to a maximum security prison in Brasilía called Papuda.
Lula supporters have voiced satisfaction that the ex-president appears jail-bound. “The message to Brazil, and to the world, is that crime doesn’t pay,” said Reimont Otoni, a Workers’ party (PT) congressman, noting how Bolsonaro’s plot included a conspiracy to assassinate Lula.
More to follow…
