Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil judge orders house arrest of former president
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
How El Salvador's brutal crackdown on crime transformed the country... and prompted US to declare it safer than Britain
El Salvador was once one of the most dangerous countries in the world, but today its murder rate has dropped by 98 per cent in a decade, and the US now considers it safer to visit than Britain or France. In 2015, there were 6,656 murders in the small Central American country, which has a population of just 6.4 million. But in 2024, there were only 114 killings. The dramatic change came after President Nayib Bukele, who brands himself as the 'world's coolest dictator', launched an aggressive crackdown on crime. In 2022, he declared a state of emergency, which remains in place. It gave security forces the power to arrest people without a warrant. At one point, around 1,000 people a day were being detained on suspicion of gang involvement. A year later, El Salvador opened a new prison called the Terrorism Confinement Centre - Cecot - to hold the growing number of detainees. It was built in a remote area and is now one of the most extreme prisons in the world. Inmates are banned from all contact with the outside world, and up to 100 men share a single cell. They sleep on bare concrete slabs with no mattresses, and food is limited. There are no visitors, and prisoners are often transferred in chains, surrounded by armed guards. Inmates are confined to their cells and are only allowed out for exercise in the prison's corridors or video link hearings. El Salvador now has the highest prison population per capita in the world, with nearly three per cent of all men in the country behind bars. US president Donald Trump has hailed Bukele's policies, and the two have become close allies. Before the crackdown, the country was dominated by two main gangs, MS-13 and Mara 18, which formed in California during the 1980s. Many members were deported back to El Salvador in the 1990s and took control of large parts of the country. Gangs extorted money from businesses, controlled entire neighbourhoods, and carried out brutal killings. But that has changed since the leader's rise. He campaigned on the promise to make the country safe, and his supporters say he has delivered. Criminal gangs are not the only ones in his crosshairs. He introduced tougher penalties for petty crimes - anyone caught drink driving, even with a trace of alcohol, can be jailed for 15 days before facing a fast-track trial and up to five years in prison. He has also surrounded entire towns with soldiers, doubled the size of the military, and expanded surveillance powers. Checkpoints with troops carrying rifles have been set up, and cops go door to door in search of suspected criminals. The tactic, which Bukele calls a 'security fence,' has been used in dozens of operations since 2022. Bukele has also pushed legal reforms allowing judges to try dozens of suspects at once. Evidence can include anonymous tips or online posts. In February 2025, Bukele signed a law which ordered children held for organised crimes to be sent to adult prisons. According to Human Rights Watch, over 3,000 minors have been detained with little or no evidence. The government has also introduced a national informant hotline, offering cash rewards to citizens who report suspected gang members. Posters and text messages encourage neighbours and even relatives to turn people in. Critics say this has led to false accusations and revenge reports. However, Bukele says the crackdown is 'an example for other countries … that we can live in peace'. Aside from his war on crime, he has launched policies like making his country the first nation to declare Bitcoin legal tender and has improved the country's infrastructure. Bukele's supporters argue that the results speak for themselves and say locals and tourists now walk the streets safely at night, even in areas that were once no-go zones Last year, he was re-elected with 85 per cent of the vote in a controversial election. His main opposition got less than 7 per cent. In a recent move, Congress abolished the limit on presidential terms, allowing him to stay in power for life if re-elected. Opposition congresswoman Marcela Villatoro said, 'Democracy died today,' after the reforms were passed by 57 votes to three. Bukele's supporters argue that the results speak for themselves and say locals and tourists now walk the streets safely at night, even in areas that were once no-go zones. But his huge transformations have not come at a cost. He has been heavily criticised by human rights advocates who say he has committed many atrocities, especially when it comes to detainees. In 2022, Amnesty International said: 'Under the current state of emergency, the Salvadoran authorities have committed massive human rights violations, including thousands of arbitrary detentions and violations of due process, as well as torture and ill-treatment.'
Reuters
5 hours ago
- Reuters
Brazil's Supreme Court caught off guard by order to arrest Bolsonaro, sources say
SAO PAULO, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Brazil's Supreme Court was caught off-guard by Justice Alexandre de Moraes' decision late on Monday to place former President Jair Bolsonaro under house arrest, two sources at the court told Reuters on Tuesday. The order underscores Moraes' readiness to act on his own despite both polarization among Brazilians on the issue and rising tensions with the White House. It came just days ahead of the introduction of 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods entering the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump imposed the levies as a reaction to what he has characterized as a "witch hunt" led by Moraes against Bolsonaro, who is standing trial under charges of plotting a coup to overturn his 2022 electoral defeat. Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing and described Moraes as a "dictator." Moraes' ruling has sparked concern within the Brazilian government that Trump could retaliate by inflicting further damage to Brazil's economy, two sources close to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's inner circle told Reuters. But Brazilian officials are not planning to push back against Moraes. The two court sources, one of whom is a justice, told Reuters that the other Supreme Court justices were supportive of Moraes, while those close to Lula said the president has neither the willingness nor the ability to influence the Supreme Court. "It doesn't change our approach in the slightest," said the justice, who asked not to be named to discuss the matter candidly. The Lula administration is instead planning policies to support those industries likely to be hardest hit by Trump's tariffs and to keep diplomatic channels open with Washington, said the political sources. But the Moraes move could create obstacles for the Brazilian negotiators, said Fabio Medina Osorio, Brazil's former attorney general. "This decision can certainly make things difficult," he said. The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a verdict within weeks on the charges that Bolsonaro and his allies plotted to overthrow democracy. It is widely expected to convict the former president. Moraes' house arrest order cited a failure to comply with restraining orders he had imposed on Bolsonaro for allegedly courting Trump's interference in the case. While domestically Moraes has received praise by some for defending Brazil's judicial independence, others have accused him of overreach. The latest order drew mixed reactions, according to a Quaest poll based on social media posts, with 53% in favor and 47% against the arrest. Newspapers that had written scathing editorials about the alliance between Bolsonaro and Trump also questioned Moraes' decisions. "Moraes was wrong to order the arrest of the former president for communicating with supporters in a rally organized by the right," an editorial by Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo said. "Brazil must acknowledge that Jair Bolsonaro has broad freedom to defend himself in court and to express himself wherever he chooses, including on social media." Former Supreme Court justices, too, offered differing views regarding the decision. "Alexandre de Moraes, in his ruling, not only upholds the country's sovereignty and independence but also the autonomy of Brazil's judiciary," said Carlos Ayres Britto, who left the Supreme Court bench in 2012. But former Justice Marco Aurelio Mello disagreed. "My perspective would be different given the constitutional principle of presumed innocence," he said.
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
How to work out if YOU can claim £950 from the car finance scandal - and what to do if you can't find the paperwork
It's the scandal dubbed 'PPI on Wheels', but last week five judges at the Supreme Court dealt a blow to millions of drivers hoping for a payout on their car finance deals. There will be no compensation for customers who were simply unaware commission was being paid when they took out car finance, with the judges declaring this was not enough to count as mis-selling.
