Former President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro was arrested Saturday by police to foil a possible “escape attempt,” according to Brazil's Supreme Court, days before he was due to begin serving a prison sentence for leading the coup attempt.
Bolsonaro was arrested at his home in Brasilia and placed in police custody. In a statement, federal police said they executed a preventive arrest warrant that was requested by the police themselves and authorized by the Supreme Court, CNN affiliate CNN Brasil reported.
Sources told CNN Brasil that a vigil organized by Bolsonaro's eldest son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, in front of the apartment complex where the former president lives was the reason for the request for preventive detention.
Bolsonaro's lawyers have vowed to appeal the arrest and rejected the claim that the former president tried to escape.
Brazil's Supreme Court said on Saturday it had received information that supporters had been “summoned” to the rally, indicating a “high likelihood of an escape attempt”, adding that Bolsonaro's electronic surveillance had been breached in the early hours.
“The information confirms the convict's intention to break the electronic ankle bracelet to ensure the success of his escape, which was facilitated by the confusion caused by the demonstration,” the court said.
Flavio Bolsonaro described the vigil, originally planned for Saturday evening local time, as an opportunity to pray for his father after recent reports of ill health and “for the return of democracy to our country.”
“Are you going to fight for your country or are you just going to watch everything on your phone at home on the couch?” he asked his followers in a video on social media.
Later on Saturday, the Supreme Court issued videowhich it says there shows Bolsonaro admitting to tampering with an ankle monitor using a soldering iron.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Bolsonaro's defense team to explain the ankle monitor tampering within 24 hours, according to a ruling released by the court on Saturday along with the video.
In the video, a criminal officer examines the partially melted shell and asks Bolsonaro questions about it. “Did you use anything to burn this here?” asks Rita Gayo, deputy director of the Secretariat of the Brazilian Penitentiary Administration.
“Hot iron,” Bolsonaro can be heard replying. He said he used the soldering iron out of “curiosity” and did not try to remove or damage the bracelet securing the device to his ankle.
Bolsonaro's lawyer told Brazilian media that the issue of the former president's ankle monitor was irrelevant, arguing that Bolsonaro would not have been able to leave his home because he was under armed guard.
“The ankle monitor issue is an attempt to justify the indefensible,” Bolsonaro’s lawyer Paulo Cunha Bueno told reporters on Saturday. “President Bolsonaro will not be able to leave the house. He has an armed patrol car 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Therefore, he will not be able to leave the house.” CNN has reached out to Bueno for comment.
Flavio Bolsonaro did not immediately respond to CNN Brasil's request for comment. In an earlier statement, Jair Bolsonaro's lawyers denied the claim that he tried to escape, CNN Brasil reported.
“The fact is that the former president was arrested at his home, wearing an electronic ankle monitor and under police surveillance,” his lawyers said in a statement. “In addition, Jair Bolsonaro’s health is fragile and his imprisonment could put his life at risk.”
Lawyers added that the right to assemble is protected by law, citing the planned vigil.
Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced earlier this year to 27 years in prison for plotting to stay in power after losing the 2022 election to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and is under house arrest. Four of Brazil's five Supreme Court judges voted to convict Bolsonaro on all five charges.
In addition to plotting the coup, Bolsonaro was found guilty of participating in an armed criminal organization, attempting to forcefully overturn Brazil's democratic order, committing violent acts against state institutions and damaging protected public property during the coup. storming government buildings by his supporters on January 8, 2023.
Bolsonaro has long insisted that the trial is a political witch hunt.
Earlier this month, senior military officials and a federal police officer were also sentenced to prison after a panel of Brazilian Supreme Court judges found them guilty of attempting a coup and plotting to kill Lula da Silva.
On Saturday, reporters asked US President Donald Trump if he had heard about Bolsonaro's arrest. Trump, an ally of Bolsonaro who raised tariffs on Brazilian goods to 50% as punishment for the former president's trial, said he had not heard anything but that it was “very bad.”
Trump recently backed down and cut out tariff exemptions for some of Brazil's largest exports, namely coffee and beef.
CNN's Julia Vargas Jones and Michael Rios contributed reporting.
This story has been updated with additional details.
