After he admitted tampering with his ankle monitor, a panel on the Brazilian Supreme Court voted unanimously to keep former president Jair Bolsonaro in the care of federal police.
After being taken into custody on Saturday, the panel of four justices convened on Monday to decide whether to continue Bolsonaro’s preventative detention.
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Alexandre de Moraes, Cristiano Zanin, Carmen Lucia, Flavio Dino, and Cristiano Zanin make up the panel’s justices. Voting is open until 8 p.m. local time (23:00 GMT). Luiz Fux, one of the panel’s fifth members, has since moved to another panel, leaving him with no seats.
De Moraes alleged Bolsonaro of making repeated “repeated” attempts to break court orders and compared the former president to a flight risk in an explanation of the decision on Monday.
Bolsonaro, according to de Moraes, has shown “patent disregard for the justice system.”
Therefore, there is no denying the necessity to convert house arrest to pre-trial detention in light of the need to uphold public order, ensure criminal law application, and prevent disregard for the already taken precautionary measures.
Bolsonaro might flee the country to avoid justice, according to Justice Dino.
Dino wrote that the “admitted breach of electronic monitoring” “not only increases the risk of escape but also demonstrates a flagrant disregard for the Judiciary’s precautionary measures.”
The far-right Bolsonaro, who attempted to overturn the 2022 presidential election’s results, was given a 27-year prison sentence in September.
On five counts, he was found guilty. They included attempting a coup, engaging in organized crime, attempting to overthrow the democratic system of justice, engaging in violent damage, and deteriorating the heritage of the listed buildings.
On Monday, a panel that had previously voted in favor of Bolsonaro’s conviction reconvened to decide whether or not he should remain in custody.
Only one of the panel’s five original justices, Fux, cast a ballot in September to support Bolsonaro’s conviction. However, Fux is no longer a member of the panel.
Bolsonaro has maintained his innocence while denying that he was trying to stoke a coup. His defense team has attempted to dampen his political standing by describing the proceedings as a protest.
Bolsonaro’s ally, United States President Donald Trump, has called the case a “witch hunt” and has attempted to intervene in his place by imposing severe tariffs on Brazil and sancting Justice de Moraes.
Bolsonaro’s defense team filed an appeal while his former residence in Brasilia was under house arrest.
Bolsonaro’s request to renounce his sentence was rejected by the Supreme Court panel in early November. In response, Bolsonaro’s attorneys have since requested that the court allow him to serve his 27-year prison sentence while he is currently on house arrest because of health issues caused by a stabbing Bolsonaro survived on the 2018 campaign trail.
After the 70-year-old allegedly used a soldering tool to damage his ankle monitor, Justice de Moraes ordered Bolsonaro to go to jail on Saturday.
Later, Assistant Judge Luciana Sorrentino later explained to the court that Bolsonaro claimed to have “paranoia” and “hallucinations” that made him believe that his ankle monitor had some wiretap. The former president claimed to have noticed the symptoms after altering his medication.
Given Bolsonaro’s growing legal issues, federal police have suggested that he might have had a past whereabouts.
A report from the police that documented some of Bolsonaro’s attempts was released in August. For instance, officials claimed to have seized a 33-page letter from Argentine President Javier Milei, a co-author of the right-wing movement, and seized it.
Bolsonaro claims that he has been “persecuted for reasons and crimes that are primarily political” in the letter from February 2024.
Bolsonaro spent a few nights in the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia at the same time as the letter, which further raises the possibility that he might seek diplomatic refuge.
According to the claim that one of Bolsonaro’s sons petitioned the Trump administration to obstruct his father’s case, Eduardo Bolsonaro is currently facing a trial for obstruction.
Source: Aljazeera
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