Brazil's Workers' Party (PT), the center-left party led by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has asked the country's Supreme Federal Court (STF) to revoke former President Jair Bolsonaro's house arrest after his son read a handwritten letter from him on social media.
The request was filed by Lindbergh Farias, a PT congressman from Rio de Janeiro and the party's deputy leader in the lower house. According to single-source reporting from CNN Brasil, Farias argues that the letter was written, removed from Bolsonaro's residence and made public within a few hours for the purpose of online dissemination.
What PT Alleges
The petition says the letter had a political and electoral character because it named Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, a member of the right-wing Liberal Party (PL), as his father's spokesman. CNN Brasil reported that the letter also reinforced Bolsonaro's support for Flávio's pre-candidacy and urged supporters to unite around it.
Farias told the court that the case was not a matter of legal ambiguity. In his filing, he argued that a letter intended to be read publicly during a live broadcast on a third party's social media account was precisely the type of conduct the court had sought to prevent.
The PT lawmaker asked the STF not only to revoke Bolsonaro's house arrest, which CNN Brasil said had been granted because of the former president's health problems, but also to impose a R$100,000 fine, roughly USD 18,000 at recent rates.
Court Restrictions
The case is before Justice Alexandre de Moraes, one of the STF's most prominent members and the justice overseeing Bolsonaro-related proceedings. CNN Brasil reported that Moraes had already reinforced in 2025 that Bolsonaro could not use social media either directly or through intermediaries.
In that earlier order, according to CNN Brasil, Moraes said the ban covered broadcasts, rebroadcasts and the publication of audio, video or interview transcripts on third-party platforms. The justice said Bolsonaro could not use those channels to evade the restriction, under penalty of immediate revocation of the measure and a new arrest order under Brazil's Code of Criminal Procedure.
The latest request puts the court back at the center of Brazil's post-Bolsonaro political conflict. Bolsonaro remains one of the country's most influential right-wing figures, while his son Flávio has become an increasingly visible political actor in his own right.
CNN Brasil's report does not say whether Bolsonaro, Flávio Bolsonaro or their lawyers had responded to the PT filing. It also does not report any decision by Moraes or the full court on the request as of publication.