Brazil's Supreme Court Cancels Flavio Bolsonaro's Passports and Bars Him From Leaving the Country After Election Defeat
Photo: Agência Senado (CC BY 2.0)
Brazil's Supreme Federal Court has ordered Flavio Bolsonaro to hand over his passports, cancelled all of his Brazilian passports — including his diplomatic one — and barred him from leaving the country, less than a day after his defeat in the presidential runoff.
The order came from Justice Alexandre de Moraes and was enforced by the Federal Police on Monday, October 26, as the senator left a visit to his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, in Brasilia.
The order
The ruling includes three measures against the defeated presidential candidate. He is banned from any contact with lawyer Willer Tomaz, also under investigation in the case. All of his Brazilian passports are cancelled, including the diplomatic passport. And he has 24 hours to hand over any passports of other nationalities he holds — he also carries an Italian passport.
The Federal Police must also place a migration alert to prevent any attempt to leave Brazil while the investigation continues.
Stopped in the street
Flavio Bolsonaro said the order was signed on Sunday night, October 25, the same day as the runoff vote in which Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won a fourth term. Federal Police officers served the notice in public, on the street outside his father's home.
"When I was leaving, the Federal Police of Lula were at the door of his house, and in the middle of the street they asked me to hand over my passports and also banned me from leaving the country," he said in a video posted on social media.
Jair Bolsonaro is currently under house arrest over an attempted coup case.
The money-laundering case
The measure is tied to a money-laundering investigation into Flavio Bolsonaro's dealings with lawyer Willer Tomaz, involving Tomaz's companies and betting firms. Federal Police found emails placing Flavio as the "main user" of a bank account belonging to Alcazar Holdings, a company linked to the lawyer.
The ruling says the restriction was based on the suspicion that he intended to leave Brazil if he lost the election — an idea Flavio denies. "I never said that," he argued, questioning why the judge took comments by his brother Eduardo as a reference for that assumption.
Flavio calls it persecution
In his video, the senator called the decision political persecution and said he will comply with it while he fights it.
"I will hand over my passports and defend myself against this aberration, which is a clear attempt to intimidate me," he said. "It was a decision taken according to the result of the election. A political question."
He still refuses to accept the result
The passport order arrived hours after Flavio Bolsonaro announced that he does not recognize the election result that gave Lula the victory. He questioned the extension of voting hours ordered during the runoff and said he will seek to challenge the electoral process.
No imprisonment order has been reported. The court order covers his passports, his travel and his contact with Tomaz — and it lands on a defeated candidate who has already said he will not accept the outcome.