Bolsonaro’s defence says drafted asylum request not evidence of Brazil’s ex-president’s flight risk
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Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro has been put under house arrest and banned from using his phone.
PHOTO: REUTERS
BRASILIA/SAO PAULO - Lawyers for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro told the Supreme Court on Aug 22 that the draft of a request for asylum in Argentina found on his phone by police cannot be considered an indication of flight risk, since it was dated last year.
“The fact is that, with or without the draft, the former president did not flee,” his lawyers said.
In the document sent to the court, the defence also denied that Bolsonaro breached any restraining order imposed by the court against him.
Bolsonaro’s defence was responding to an order by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes to clarify an alleged failure to comply with court-imposed restraining orders and his flight risk, after police presented a report with fresh accusations against the former president.
Police formally accused Bolsonaro and his son Eduardo on Aug 20 of working to interfere with the former president’s Supreme Court trial for allegedly plotting a coup to overturn the 2022 election.
In Aug 22’s document, Bolsonaro’s lawyers called the police report a “political tool” aimed at demoralising the former president.
Earlier in August, Bolsonaro was put under house arrest and banned from using his phone, after Justice Moraes found that the former president failed to comply with restraining orders imposed on him for allegedly courting US President Donald Trump's interference in the case.
On Aug 22, Bolsonaro’s lawyers asked Justice Moraes to reconsider the house arrest order. REUTERS
