This Saturday, the Federal Police of Brazil preventively detained former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, convicted of an attempted coup d’état. The decision of the country’s Supreme Court thus puts an end to the house arrest of the far-right, who had already been imprisoned in his residence for more than 100 days, according to local media and the EFE agency.
A group of police officers went to Bolsonaro’s residence, in Brasilia, and arrested the far-right leader, who was immediately transferred to police stations. The Brazilian Supreme Court has decreed the preventive detention of the former president to “guarantee public order”, after, the judges say, the former president tried to break the electronic anklet that controls his movements. He intended to escape during a demonstration called in front of his house by one of his sons, as stated by the Court.
The far-right leader, sentenced to 27 years in prison for a coup and who had already been under house arrest since August, was arrested and taken to police authorities to “guarantee public order,” as justified by the Supreme Court in its decision.
Bolsonaro was sentenced last September to 27 years and three months in prison by the Supreme Federal Court for planning a coup d’état after losing the 2022 elections against the progressive Lula da Silva. Brazilian justice concluded that Bolsonaro had been the leader and main beneficiary of a plan to prevent Lula from taking office in 2023.
This is the first time in the country’s history that a former president faces prison sentences for having attacked democracy after losing the elections in 2022.
Bolsonaro has remained under strict house arrest for violating precautionary measures. This same Friday, the former president’s defense had asked the Supreme Court that the far-right could serve his entire sentence under house arrest, citing health reasons. However, the petition has not been heard, and his lawyers have not yet commented on his arrest.
Even so, his defense is expected to request permission again to remain under house arrest. During these 100 days, Bolsonaro has been prohibited from accessing social networks, although he has been able to enjoy other benefits, including visits or calls from international leaders and colleagues, such as the president of the United States, Donald Trump, who has described his trial on several occasions as a “witch hunt.”
According to local media, Bolsonaro’s preventive detention this Saturday is not about the beginning of the execution of the sentence, which is expected to begin in the coming weeks, after the Supreme Court has rejected the first appeals against the sentence.
Within the framework of the coup trial, the Supreme Court also ordered preventive detention this Friday for deputy Alexandre Ramagem, a great ally of Bolsonaro who has also been convicted in the same trial of the former president, after supposedly having fled to the United States. Investigations indicate that the parliamentarian left Brazil last September through the state of Roraima, bordering Venezuela, and continued clandestinely to that country or to French Guiana, before heading to the United States.
Ramagem, former director of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency, received a sentence of 16 years in closed prison for the crimes of criminal organization, coup d’état and violent abolition of the Democratic State of Law.
Source: www.eldiario.es
