Brazilian police raid former president's home during trial over alleged coup attempt
The former Brazilian leader's son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who recently moved to the United States to lobby for his father, wrote on X that federal police carried out a "raid on my father's home this morning".
He lashed out at Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes, a Bolsonaro adversary, who on Friday, local time, ordered the ex-president to wear an electronic ankle bracelet, not leave his home at night, or use social media.
Judge de Moraes — one of the judges in Bolsonaro's trial for allegedly seeking to nullify leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's 2022 election victory — said the measures were necessary given the "hostile acts" against Brazil by the accused and his son.
This came after Mr Trump announced a 50 per cent tariff on the South American powerhouse for what he said was a "witch hunt" against his ally.
On Thursday, Mr Trump wrote to Jair Bolsonaro, describing his ally's treatment by the Brazilian legal system as terrible and unjust.
"This trial should end immediately!" the US president said, adding that he "strongly voiced" his disapproval through his tariff policy.
Eduardo Bolsonaro said that the judge "has long abandoned any semblance of impartiality and now operates as a political gangster in robes, using the Supreme Court as his personal weapon".
The judge was "trying to criminalize President Trump and the US government. Powerless against them, he chose to take my father hostage," he added in a letter he signed as a "Brazilian congressman in exile".
The Supreme Court's restrictions on Jair Bolsonaro are part of a second investigation against Eduardo Bolsonaro for allegedly working with US authorities to impose sanctions against Brazilian officials.
Live aerial footage from local broadcasters showed federal police vehicles outside Jair Bolsonaro's residence in Brasília.
Congressman Sóstenes Cavalcante, the leader of Bolsonaro's party in the lower house, told The Associated Press that officers also searched Jair Bolsonaro's office at the party's headquarters. He described the operation as "another chapter in the persecution of conservatives and right-wing figures" in Brazil.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Friday that the Trump administration was revoking a US visa for Judge de Moraes for his "political witch hunt against Jair Bolsonaro".
Accusing him of creating a "persecution and censorship complex," Mr Rubio also announced visa restrictions on other judges who side with Judge de Moraes, as well as their immediate family members.
Jair Bolsonaro, 70, described the judge's electronic monitoring order on Friday as a "supreme humiliation" and said the prohibitions were "suffocating".
It also prohibited him from approaching foreign embassies and confined him to his home on weekdays between 7pm and 6am, and all day on weekends or public holidays.
"I never thought about leaving Brazil, I never thought about going to an embassy," Jair Bolsonaro said after emerging from the Justice Secretariat offices in Brasilia.
He had been taken there after the raid, during which police seized cash.
His defence team in a statement expressed "surprise and indignation" at the new measures.
The former army captain denies he was involved in an attempt to wrest power back from Mr Lula as part of an alleged coup plot that prosecutors say failed only for a lack of military backing.
After the plot fizzled, rioting supporters known as "Bolsonaristas" raided government buildings in early 2023 as they urged the military to oust Mr Lula. Jair Bolsonaro was abroad at the time.
The case against the former president echoes that of Mr Trump's failed prosecution over the January 6, 2021, attacks by his supporters on the US Capitol to try and reverse his election loss to Joe Biden.
Both men have claimed to be victims of political persecution, and Mr Trump has stepped in in defence of his ally, to the anger of Mr Lula, who has labelled the tariff threat "unacceptable blackmail".
The Trump administration also announced an investigation into "unfair trading practices" by Brazil, a move that could provide a legal basis for imposing tariffs on South America's largest economy.
On Tuesday, prosecutors asked the trial judges of the Supreme Court to find Jair Bolsonaro guilty of "armed criminal association" and planning to "violently overthrow the democratic order".
The defence must still present its closing arguments, after which a five-member panel of judges, including Judge de Moraes, will decide the ex-president's fate.
Jair Bolsonaro and seven co-accused risk up to 40 years in prison.
He has repeatedly stated his desire to be a candidate in presidential elections next year, but has been ruled ineligible to hold office by a court that found him guilty of spreading misinformation about Brazil's electoral system.
Mr Lula, for his part, said on Friday that he intends to seek another term.
"You can be sure that I will be a candidate again … I will not hand this country over to that bunch of lunatics who almost destroyed it," the 79-year-old said at a public event in the state of Ceara.
Judge de Moraes has repeatedly clashed with Jair Bolsonaro and other right-wing figures he has accused of spreading fake news.
Last year, the judge suspended tech titan Elon Musk's X network in Brazil for 40 days for failing to tackle the spread of disinformation shared mainly by Jair Bolsonaro backers.
AP/AFP
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