Brazil’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered the home arrest for former President Jair Bolsonaro, on trial for allegedly masterminding a coup plot to stay in office despite his defeat within the 2022 election — a case that has gripped the South American country because it faces a trade war with the Trump administration.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversees the case against Bolsonaro before the highest court, said in his decision that the 70-year-old former president had violated precautionary measures imposed on him by spreading content through his three lawmaker sons.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers said in an announcement that he’ll appeal the choice. They said his words “good afternoon, Copacabana, good afternoon my Brazil, a hug to everyone, that is for our freedom” — broadcast from a cellular phone of one in all his sons during a Sunday protest in Rio de Janeiro — cannot “be thought to be ignoring precautionary measures or as a criminal act.”
The trial of the far-right leader is receiving renewed attention after U.S. President Donald Trump directly tied a 50% tariff on imported Brazilian goods to his ally’s judicial situation. Trump has called the proceedings a “ witch hunt,” triggering nationalist reactions from leaders of all branches of power in Brazil, including President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Hours after the choice, the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said on X that the Trump administration “condemns (de) Moraes’ order imposing house arrest on Bolsonaro and can hold accountable all those aiding and abetting sanctioned conduct.”
“Putting much more restrictions on Jair Bolsonaro’s ability to defend himself in public isn’t a public service. Let Bolsonaro speak!” the U.S. State Department body said.
Brazil’s government has not commented on the case.
The case against Bolsonaro
Brazil’s prosecutors accuse Bolsonaro of heading a criminal organization that plotted to overturn the election, including plans to kill Lula and Justice de Moraes after the far-right leader narrowly lost his reelection bid in 2022.
Monday’s order followed one from the highest court last month that ordered Bolsonaro to wear an electronic ankle monitor and imposed a curfew on his activities while the proceedings are underway.
Following news of the arrest order, a staffer with Brazil’s federal police told The Associated Press that federal agents had seized cell phones at Bolsonaro’s residence within the capital of Brasilia, as ordered by de Moraes in his decision. The staffer spoke on condition of anonymity because of their lack of authorization to talk concerning the matter publicly.
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Bolsonaro is predicted to stay in Brasilia for his house arrest as he isn’t allowed to travel. He also has a house in Rio de Janeiro, where he held his electoral base as a lawmaker for 3 many years. The previous army captain is the fourth former president of Brazil to be arrested because the end of the country’s military rule from 1964 to 1985, which Bolsonaro supported.
‘Flagrant disrespect’
The move from the Brazilian justice comes a day after tens of hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters took the streets within the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio, pleading for Brazil’s congress to pardon him and a whole lot of others who’re either under trial or jailed for his or her roles within the destruction of presidency buildings in Brasilia on Jan. 8, 2023.
On Sunday, Bolsonaro addressed supporters in Rio through the phone of one in all his sons, which de Moraes’ described as illegal.
“The flagrant disrespect to the precautionary measures was so obvious that the defendant’s son, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, decided to remove the posting in his Instagram profile, with the target of hiding the legal transgression,” de Moraes wrote.
Flávio Bolsonaro claimed on X that Brazil “is officially in a dictatorship” after his father’s house arrest. “The persecution of de Moraes against Bolsonaro has no limits!” the senator wrote.
De Moraes added in his ruling that Jair Bolsonaro, who governed Brazil between 2019 and 2022, has spread messages with “a transparent content of encouragement and instigation to attacks against the Supreme Court and a blatant support for foreign intervention within the Brazilian Judiciary” — likely a veiled reference to Trump’s support for Bolsonaro.
De Moraes also said that Bolsonaro “addressed protesters gathered in Copacabana, in Rio” on Sunday so his supporters could “attempt to coerce the Supreme Court.”
Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions on de Moraes over alleged suppression of freedom of expression regarding Bolsonaro’s trial. On Monday, the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs called the Brazilian justice “a U.S.-sanctioned human rights abuser” and accused him of using “institutions to silence opposition and threaten democracy.”
De Moraes said in his decision that “(Brazil’s) judiciary won’t allow a defendant to make a idiot out of it.”
“Justice is identical for all. A defendant who willingly ignores precautionary measures — for the second time — must suffer legal consequences,” he said.
Creomar de Souza, a political analyst of Dharma Political Risk and Strategy, a political consultancy firm based in Brasilia, said Bolsonaro’s house arrest opens a brand new moment for the country’s opposition, which can could gather steam in fighting against Lula’s reelection bid next yr.
Now, de Souza said, “the 2026 election looks like turmoil” and the political debate in Brazil will likely be split between two key struggles.
“One is the hassle of Bolsonaro supporters to maintain strong on the best, regardless of whether it is pushing for amnesty in congress or putting themselves physically on the market,” the analyst said. “The second is how the Lula administration will try to indicate that the country has a government.”
“That is just the beginning,” he concluded.
The most recent decision from the highest court keeps Bolsonaro under ankle monitoring, allows only relations and lawyers to go to him and seizes all mobile phones from his home.
Lula was imprisoned for 580 days between 2018 and 2019 in a corruption conviction that was later tossed out by the Supreme Court, citing the bias of the judge within the case.
Michel Temer, who became president after Dilma Rousseff was impeached in 2016, was arrested for 10 days in 2019 in reference to a graft investigation, which later ended with no conviction.
Earlier this yr, de Moraes ordered the detention of President Fernando Collor, who was in office from 1990 to 1992 until he was impeached. The 75-year-old former president was convicted for money laundering and corruption in 2023 and is now serving his greater than eight-year sentence.
Hours after the order, right-wing lawmakers criticized de Moraes’ decision and compared Bolsonaro’s situation to that of his predecessors.
“House arrest for Jair Bolsonaro by de Moraes. Reason: corruption?” asked lawmaker Nikolas Ferreira. “No. His kids posted his content on social media. Pathetic.”
The far-right leader is already barred from next yr’s election because of an abuse of power conviction by the country’s top electoral court.
Leftist lawmaker Duda Salabert said Bolsonaro’s house arrest boosts Brazil’s democracy.
“And people who attacked it are about to pay,” Salabert said.