Brazil orders arrest of Bolsonaro ahead of prison sentence

Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered the pre-emptive arrest of former president Jair Bolsonaro on Saturday, days before he was set to begin his 27-year prison sentence for leading a coup attempt.

The embattled leader was taken to the headquarters of the country’s federal police in the capital, Brasilia, from his house arrest.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the case, said in his ruling that the arrest “should be made with all respect to the dignity of former President Jair Messias Bolsonaro, without the use of handcuffs and without any media exposition”.

Bolsonaro’s aide Andriely Cirino confirmed that the arrest took place around 6am on Saturday, only hours after de Moraes made the unexpected decision.

The 70-year-old former president was taken from his house in a gated community in the upscale Jardim Botanico neighborhood to the federal police headquarters, Cirino said.

De Moraes mentioned in his ruling a video published this week by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, one of the former president’s sons, in which he egged on supporters to take to the streets in his father’s defence.

“The video shot by Flávio Bolsonaro stimulates the disrespect to the constitutional text, to the judicial decision and to [democratic] institutions, showing there are no limits for the criminal organisation in its attempt to create chaos and conflict in this country, in total disrespect to democracy,” the Supreme Court justice wrote.