Conviction alleges lobbying US officials to sanction Brazilian authorities
Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the arrest of Eduardo Bolsonaro on Thursday afternoon and the cancellation of his Brazilian passports, according to United Press International, with the decision made public through Brazilian media. The order came less than three weeks before the Oct. 25 presidential runoff between Eduardo’s brother, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of Rio de Janeiro, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, a former congressman and son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, lives in the United States. It was unclear Friday whether Brazilian authorities would seek his extradition before the runoff.
The arrest follows a conviction for coercion in judicial proceedings. Eduardo Bolsonaro was sentenced to four years and two months in prison; his conviction became final Saturday, clearing the way for the sentence to be carried out, according to UPI.
Brazilian prosecutors had accused Eduardo Bolsonaro of lobbying U.S. officials to impose sanctions on Brazilian authorities and tariffs on Brazilian exports to pressure the judiciary during criminal proceedings against his father. The case has its roots in the prosecution of Jair Bolsonaro, who has been charged over an alleged plot to overturn the results of Brazil’s 2022 presidential election, which he lost to Lula.
Eduardo Bolsonaro rejected the arrest order in a statement posted on X, calling the ruling “arbitrary, ill-timed and futile” and claiming the United States had already made clear that it would not comply with the Brazilian court’s decision.
“Even after the clear message of ‘enough is enough’ delivered at the ballot box, Alexandre de Moraes is once again throwing the country into turmoil with an arbitrary, ill-timed, and futile ruling, given that the United States has already made it clear that it will not comply with such delusional decisions,” Eduardo Bolsonaro wrote.
He accused Moraes of unnecessarily escalating political tensions during the campaign. The “only practical effect of this measure, deliberately taken in the midst of the electoral process,” Eduardo Bolsonaro said, was “to further inflame tensions across the country, entirely unnecessarily.”
He added that “fortunately, on October 25, the Brazilian people will deliver their final verdict by electing Flávio Bolsonaro, who, together with the new Congress, will restore normalcy to Brazil.”
In a separate post written in Spanish, Eduardo Bolsonaro claimed he had never been formally notified of the proceedings and had been unable to defend himself because he did not know the charges against him. He also argued that his conviction stemmed from Moraes’s interpretation that he had influenced sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump against Brazilian authorities.
The arrest order comes amid a closely contested presidential election. Flávio Bolsonaro finished first in Sunday’s first-round vote with 47.03% of valid votes, compared with 45.16% for Lula, according to Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court. Neither candidate secured an outright majority, sending the election to the Oct. 25 runoff.
Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, is seeking to return his family’s political movement to the presidency four years after his father lost his 2022 re-election bid to Lula. The Liberal Party, with which the Bolsonaro family is associated, emerged from the congressional elections with 121 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 28 in the Senate, according to Agência Brasil.
The presidential candidate has secured support from other conservative parties and proposed constitutional changes, including lowering the age of criminal responsibility, changes to the judiciary, and ending presidential re-election.
The arrest order adds another legal dispute involving the Bolsonaro family to a presidential campaign already shaped by political polarization and tensions between Brazil and the United States.