Ruling cites money-laundering case and cancels all passports
Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes barred Senator Flávio Bolsonaro from leaving Brazil and ordered him to surrender all his passports, hours after Bolsonaro lost Sunday’s presidential runoff to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The order also barred contact with lawyer Willer Tomaz and referenced a federal police money-laundering investigation, while Flávio Bolsonaro said he would file another case seeking to disqualify Lula’s ticket.
The brief ruling refers only to a criminal case in which federal police are investigating Flávio Bolsonaro’s possible involvement in a money-laundering scheme. It bars him from having any contact with his friend Willer Tomaz, a lawyer linked to betting companies that police suspect were being used to launder about £680 million.
De Moraes canceled all of Bolsonaro’s passports, including the diplomatic passport he holds as a congressman, and ordered him to hand them over within 24 hours. The ruling came from de Moraes, who also oversaw the trial of Bolsonaro’s father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, for attempting a coup.
Bolsonaro was the first to speak publicly about the matter, before Brazilian media were aware of the ruling. In a video posted on social media, he said he had just left a visit to his father, who is under house arrest in Brasília, when “Lula’s federal police were at his door and in the middle of the street, and I was served with an order to hand over my passports and I am also prohibited from leaving the country”.
Bolsonaro said the decision was based on an interview his brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, gave last Friday. Eduardo, who is in self-imposed exile in the US, told a US podcast on Friday that he favoured his brother leaving Brazil if he lost the election, but Flávio said, “I never said that”.
Like Jair Bolsonaro four years ago, Flávio had still not conceded defeat to Lula. After the result was declared on Sunday night, he announced a plan to seek the election’s annulment, claiming that a two-hour voting extension had harmed the election. The extension was intended to allow voters who had been unable to access the mandatory free public transport to cast their ballots, and Bolsonaro’s own campaign had also argued for an extension.
The Folha de S.Paulo reported that Flávio Bolsonaro had been persuaded to drop the annulment plan and that allies and lawyers told him his argument was legally weak. He had not publicly reversed his demand by the time of the video.
In the same video, however, Flávio Bolsonaro said he would file another case to have Lula’s ticket disqualified over alleged abuse of economic power. He described the case as similar to others his legal team brought during the campaign.
When his Senate term ends early next year, Bolsonaro will be out of public office for the first time in 24 years and therefore without the special jurisdiction afforded to officeholders.
He is also under investigation in another criminal case concerning what became of the £20 million that a recording captured him asking a banker accused of corruption to provide for a biopic about his father.