Brazil judge orders 24/7 watch on Bolsonaro citing flight risk
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Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered round-the-clock police surveillance of Bolsonaro ahead of a trial that could result in a prison sentence of over 40 years.
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Former President Jair Bolsonaro leaves the Liberal Party headquarters in Brasilia, Brazil, on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (AP)
A Brazilian supreme court justice has ruled that Jair Bolsonaro must be placed under constant police surveillance, a measure intended to prevent the former president from fleeing the country in the days leading up to the start of a trial that could result in a prison sentence of more than 40 years.
The far-right leader, who has been wearing an electronic ankle tag since mid-July and under house arrest since early August, faced a request from the prosecutor general last Monday for the supreme court to tighten his surveillance after federal police reported he had drafted a request for political asylum in Argentina.
In Tuesday’s ruling, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, agreeing there was a “risk of flight,” ordered police to monitor Bolsonaro’s Brasília mansion 24 hours a day and instructed that officers be stationed “discreetly” without entering the former president’s home or disturbing the neighborhood.
Moraes wrote that the activity of congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, who, along with his father, the former Brazilian president, are under investigation for trying to obstruct the proceedings and pressure the justices into acquitting the former president, was “intensifying” as the trial approaches and that his “incessant actions, including while based abroad, indicate the possibility of a risk of flight on the part of Bolsonaro”.
Bolsonaro planned to flee to Argentina, fearing trial: Brazilian police
According to a claim made by Brazilian police in court documents on August 21, a document found on the mobile phone of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro suggests he had planned to flee to Argentina ahead of his judgment for allegedly plotting a military coup.
A 170-page report that federal police investigators filed with the Supreme Court on Wednesday detailed a document saved on the ex-president’s phone in February 2024, just two days after authorities seized his passport as a result of the coup investigation.
According to a report reviewed by The Guardian, police stated that the document indicated he was planning to seek political asylum in Argentina, a country governed by his far-right ally Javier Milei. Bolsonaro’s alleged draft asylum request, which claims “In my country of origin I am being persecuted for essentially political reasons and crimes,” describes the former president as “a politically persecuted person”.
The undated and unsigned letter, which was addressed to Argentine President Javier Gerardo Milei with a misspelling of his last name, asserted that Bolsonaro was facing imminent arrest and claimed that his potential arrest was an unjust, illegal, arbitrary, and unconstitutional act.
