Brazil Supreme Court Extends Bolsonaro House Arrest and Orders Weapons Surrender

Brazilian Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes extended former President Jair Bolsonaro’s humanitarian house arrest on Friday and ordered his defense team to surrender ten weapons within 48 hours, according to single-source reporting from O Globo.

Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year sentence after being convicted over the attempted coup following Brazil’s 2022 election, O Globo reported. Moraes also revoked Bolsonaro’s firearms permit and said his current legal status is incompatible with keeping a firearm at home.

The Court Order

The decision keeps in place the conditions Moraes imposed when he allowed Bolsonaro to leave prison for medical reasons in March. At that time, the justice set an initial 90-day period for recovery from bronchopneumonia, a lung infection, and said the arrangement would be reassessed after that period.

Friday’s order differs in one important respect: Moraes did not set a new date for review. He said the humanitarian reasons for house arrest remain present and that the measure remains “reasonable, adequate and proportional,” according to the decision quoted by O Globo.

The ruling cited weekly medical reports submitted by Bolsonaro’s defense. Moraes said they showed clinical improvement not only from bronchopneumonia but also from other health conditions. During the three months under house arrest, Bolsonaro also underwent shoulder surgery and received physiotherapy.

Firearms Dispute

The weapons order followed a separate incident near the end of the initial 90-day period. A pistol belonging to Bolsonaro was seized from a military officer who said he worked with the former president’s security team during a breathalyzer stop in the Federal District, which includes Brasília.

Bolsonaro’s defense told the STF that the former president kept the weapon at home and argued there was no irregularity because it was registered. The defense also said, according to O Globo, that members of his security team had made the weapon inoperable without his knowledge because of psychiatric medication Bolsonaro was taking.

Bolsonaro repeated that account in testimony. He said he had asked the officer for help after noticing that the pistol did not work and needed repair, his defense said. He also said he could not remain unarmed at home because he lived with three women.

Civil Police in the Federal District concluded Bolsonaro did not commit a crime by having the weapon at home while under house arrest, O Globo reported. The police said the firearm had a valid registration and that they were not aware of restrictions preventing him from keeping it in his residence.

Prosecutors Backed Extension

Brazil’s Prosecutor General’s Office (PGR), the federal body that represents criminal prosecution before higher courts, agreed that the firearm episode did not amount to a disciplinary violation that should worsen Bolsonaro’s prison regime.

Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet supported maintaining house arrest but said Bolsonaro’s legal position was now incompatible with possession of a firearm. Moraes adopted that view in ordering the weapons surrendered.

The case carries added weight because Bolsonaro previously lost an earlier house-arrest arrangement after damaging an electronic ankle monitor with a soldering iron, according to O Globo. Moraes then ordered preventive detention, citing flight risk and the absence of conditions to preserve the earlier house-arrest regime.

The extension also comes amid political strain inside Bolsonaro’s family. O Globo reported that former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro released a video saying she had been mistreated and “stabbed in the back” by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, Bolsonaro’s son, and later resigned as president of the women’s wing of the Liberal Party (PL), Bolsonaro’s political party.