Brazilian police called Wednesday for former president Jair Bolsonaro and his son Eduardo to be charged with obstruction of justice for attempting to interfere with the ex-leader’s trial over plotting an attempted coup.
The police also revealed that Bolsonaro, who faces 40 years in prison if convicted of plotting in 2022 to overthrow his democratically elected successor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, had plans to seek asylum in Argentina last year.
Brazil’s Supreme Court will begin deciding on September 2 on the coup attempt charges against Bolsonaro, who led Latin America’s largest country from 2019 to 2022.
In a report released Wednesday, the police said they found a 33-page draft asylum request on Bolsonaro’s phone addressed to Argentina’s right-wing President Javier Milei.
In the document, which was dated a few days after police began investigating him in February 2024, Bolsonaro claimed he was the victim of “political persecution.”
The Supreme Court found the document demonstrated the accused is a “proven flight risk,” according to a ruling signed by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing Bolsonaro’s trial. Moraes also urged Bolsonaro’s defense team to provide an explanation within 48 hours.
In the report, the police also accused Bolsonaro and his US-based son Eduardo of engaging in “conduct intended to interfere with the criminal proceedings.”
The police recommended charging the pair with “coercion in the judicial process” and “abolition of the democratic law.”
The combined sentence for the two offenses could reach up to 12 years in prison.
The prosecutor’s office will decide whether to accept the police’s recommendation.
Bolsonaro — who has been under house arrest since early August — has maintained his innocence in the coup trial, which President Donald Trump, an ally, has called a “witch hunt.”
Eduardo Bolsonaro stepped down from his position as a Brazilian congressman in March and moved to the United States, where he is campaigning for the Trump administration to intercede on his father’s behalf.
He has successfully lobbied Trump to take punitive action against Brazil over the case. Trump has also imposed a massive 50 percent tariff on many Brazilian exports to the United States, citing the Bolsonaro trial.
Eduardo Bolsonaro responded to the police report on Wednesday by saying that his actions in the US “were never intended to interfere with any ongoing proceedings in Brazil.”
“I have always made it clear that my goal is restoring individual freedoms in the country,” he said on social media.
The police also recommended the charges for two Bolsonaro allies, evangelical pastor Silas Malafaia and Paulo Figueiredo, the grandson of ex-president Joao Figueiredo.
Malafaia allegedly helped Bolsonaro by “defining strategies of coercion and the dissemination of false narratives… which ultimately aim to coerce members of the judiciary,” the report said.
The Supreme Court ordered Malafaia’s home be searched and banned him from leaving Brazil. The pastor was also told to “immediately” testify to the police.
Figueiredo, who lives in the United States, allegedly advised Eduardo Bolsonaro on his lobbying of the White House, the police said.
AFP
