Jair Bolsonaro arrested after tampering with ankle tag ‘out of curiosity’

Original article by Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro

Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has claimed he tried to damage his electronic ankle monitor “out of curiosity” after he was arrested at his villa owing to suspicions he was poised to abscond.

In a video released by the supreme court, Bolsonaro – who was recently sentenced to 27 years in prison for masterminding a military coup – can be heard admitting to a security official that he had used a soldering iron to tamper with the black tag.

The video showed the device badly damaged and burned on both sides, but still attached to his ankle.

Bolsonaro was arrested shortly after 6am on Saturday by federal police after a supreme court judge issued a preventive arrest warrant because he was poised to flee to a foreign embassy. The 70-year-old politician was taken to a federal police base, seven miles from the presidential palace he occupied from 2019 to 2022, when he lost the election and tried to launch a military coup.

The arrest of Bolsonaro, who had been living under house arrest in the capital, Brasília, since August, was ordered by the supreme court justice, Alexandre de Moraes, as a result of fears the former president might make a run for one of Brasília’s many diplomatic compounds to avoid punishment for the failed power grab.

In September, Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison over a scheme to stop the 2022 election winner, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, taking office. However, the court has yet to order Bolsonaro’s imprisonment for those crimes while a series of legal procedures and appeals play out.

Amid growing speculation that Bolsonaro would be imprisoned in the coming days, supporters had been planning to hold a “vigil” on Saturday night outside the luxury condominium where their leader has been living under house arrest.

The protest had been called by Bolsonaro’s senator son, Flávio Bolsonaro, in a social media video: “Are you going to fight for your country or are you going to watch everything on your mobile phone while sitting at home on your sofa?” He invited Bolsonaristas to “come and fight with us”.

In his ruling ordering Bolsonaro’s arrest on Saturday morning, Moraes said it was possible the vigil could be used as a diversion to help the former president escape to a foreign embassy.

Adding to those suspicions, Moraes said Bolsonaro’s electronic ankle monitor had been tampered with at 12.08am on Saturday. That suggested “the convict had planned to break the ankle monitor in order to ensure the success of his escape, aided by the confusion caused by the protest called by his son”.

Moraes noted how Bolsonaro, who counts the US president, Donald Trump, among his international allies, lived about 15 minutes from the US embassy. In August, Bolsonaro was accused of seeking asylum in Argentina, where another rightwing ally, Javier Milei, holds power. In 2024, Bolsonaro mysteriously spent two nights inside the embassy of Hungary.

Speculation that Bolsonaro’s arrest was imminent had reached fever pitch in recent days as allies voiced outrage at the prospect of the former president being sent to a maximum security prison in Brasilía called Papuda.

Lula supporters have voiced satisfaction that the ex-president appeared jail bound. “The message to Brazil, and to the world, is that crime doesn’t pay,” said Reimont Otoni, a Workers’ party (PT) congressman, noting how Bolsonaro’s plot included a conspiracy to assassinate Lula.

Bolsonaro’s evangelical wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, responded to her husband’s arrest by posting an excerpt from Psalm 121 on social media. “The Lord will keep you from all harm – he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore,” it said.

Congressman Sóstenes Cavalcante, one of Bolsonaro’s closest allies, called the arrest “the biggest [act of] political persecution in Brazilian history”.

Bolsonaro’s lawyers voiced “profound perplexity” at their client’s detention in a sparsely decorated 12 sq metre police bedroom and vowed to appeal against a decision they claimed would put the former president’s life at risk, given his “delicate” health.

Talíria Petrone, a leftwing congresswoman from Rio, captured the joy among progressives, as Bolsonaro’s detractors were filmed opening bottles of sparkling wine and setting off fireworks outside the federal police HQ. “Today the alarm clock sounded different: it was the news of Bolsonaro’s arrest illuminating the morning,” she tweeted, adding: “Brazil smiles. A wonderful day.”

Petra Costa, a film-maker and the director of documentaries about Bolsonaro’s attacks on Brazilian democracy, was also celebrating. “Brazil just succeeded where America failed. Bringing a former president who assaulted democracy to justice,” she wrote on Facebook.