Brazil’s ex-president Jair Bolsonaro arrested over alleged plot to escape and avoid 27-year prison term

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s federal police on Saturday arrested former president Jair Bolsonaro over suspicion he was plotting to escape and avoid starting a 27-year prison sentence for leading a coup attempt.

The decision laid bare some of the country’s divisions, with many uncorking Champagne outside the far-right leader’s prison to celebrate as his supporters prepared a religious act in his favour.

In a dramatic and unexpected twist in the final stage of a long and divisive criminal trial, federal agents entered Bolsonaro’s house early Saturday under the order of a Supreme Court Justice to take the former president to the headquarters of the country’s federal police in the capital, Brasilia.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the case on Bolsonaro’s attempt to keep the presidency after his defeat to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022, ordered the pre-emptive arrest after saying the far-right leader’s ankle monitor was violated at 12:08 a.m. on Saturday.

His lawyers claimed in a statement that did not take place.

A report by custody agents released later in the day — and reviewed by The Associated Press — said Bolsonaro admitted using a soldering iron to try to open the device.

In a court video also seen by the AP, Bolsonaro is heard admitting such attempt.

The footage shows the ankle monitor’s cap heavily damaged.

Bolsonaro, 70, who had been under house arrest, was ordered to wear the device after being deemed a flight risk.

His aide Andriely Cirino confirmed that the arrest took place around 6 a.m. on Saturday.

In the following hours, dozens of cars honked outside the federal police’s headquarters as some Bolsonaro supporters protested.

Police have since tried keep the small, but fierce, opposing sides separated.

De Moraes said the arrest was a preventive measure to avoid a potential escape during a protest organized by his son later Saturday.

“Are you going to fight for your country or are you going to watch it all from your cellphone in your home’s sofa?,” Flávio Bolsonaro said in a video inviting people to go outside his fathers’ house at 7 p.m. “I invite you to fight with us.”

De Moraes said the attempt to break the ankle monitor was a confirmation Bolsonaro would try to escape during “the confusion that would be caused by a demonstration organized by his son.”

The judge said there was a chance of Bolsonaro fleeing to the US Embassy in Brasilia. The Supreme Court justice also mentioned other defendants in the coup case and political allies of the former president leaving Brazil to avoid jail.

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