Former President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, was on Saturday arrested at his residence in Brasília, days before he was expected to commence a prison sentence for allegedly leading a coup attempt, CNN Brasil has reported.
In a statement, the Federal Police said the arrest followed a preventive warrant it requested and which was approved by the country’s Supreme Court. Operatives stormed Bolsonaro’s home in the nation’s capital to effect the arrest.
Sources told CNN Brasil that a vigil organised by Bolsonaro’s eldest son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, outside the residential complex where the former president stays, triggered the move for immediate detention.
Bolsonaro was earlier this year sentenced to 27 years imprisonment after he was found guilty of plotting to retain power despite losing the 2022 presidential election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He had been under house arrest.
A five-man Supreme Court panel had considered the matter, with four justices voting to convict him on all five counts in what analysts have described as a landmark decision.
Apart from attempting to stage a coup, Bolsonaro was also convicted of participating in an armed criminal organisation, attempting to forcefully dismantle Brazil’s democratic order, engaging in violent acts against state institutions, and damaging protected government property during the January 8, 2023 invasion of federal buildings by his supporters.
Bolsonaro has consistently dismissed the charges, describing the trial as a political witch-hunt.
Earlier in the month, several senior military officers and a federal police official were also sentenced after the Supreme Court found them guilty of attempting a coup and plotting to assassinate President Lula da Silva.
