Brazil top court votes to keep former president Bolsonaro in police custody

SAO PAULO - A panel of Brazil’s Supreme Court voted on Nov 24 to keep former president Jair Bolsonaro in police custody after Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered his detention on Nov 22 citing a flight risk.

Justices Flavio Dino and Cristiano Zanin joined Justice Moraes, forming a majority on the four-judge panel to back a decision that had ended more than 100 days of house arrest. Bolsonaro is awaiting final appeals against his 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup.

Bolsonaro, 70,

was arrested on Nov 22

after the authorities said he took a soldering iron to his ankle monitor, and ahead of a planned supporters’ vigil outside his home – which Justice Moraes said could disrupt police monitoring of his house arrest.

The right-wing leader told a judge on Nov 23 that medicine-induced paranoia and hallucination caused him to tamper with the ankle monitor. He denied any intent to escape or to try to remove the ankle monitor.

“The admitted breach of electronic monitoring not only increases the risk of escape, but also indicates a blatant violation of the precautionary measures imposed by the judiciary,” Justice Dino wrote in his vote.

Bolsonaro was

sentenced in September

to 27 years and three months in prison for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 presidential election to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. REUTERS