A Brazilian judge on Saturday issued house arrest orders for 10 people who have been convicted and sentenced for taking part in a plot to keep former president Jair Bolsonaro in power after he lost the 2022 election.
The decision by Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes comes just hours after authorities in neighbouring Paraguay arrested a former police commander who also had been convicted in the plot and returned him to Brazil.
Silvinei Vasques, the former director of Brazil’s Federal Highway Police, was extradited to Brazil on Friday night, after he had secretly entered Paraguay and attempted to board a flight to El Salvador using Paraguayan documents. According to Brazilian police, Vasques tore off his ankle monitor on Thursday and drove to Paraguay in a rental car.
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The 10 people subjected to house arrest orders on Saturday had been facing cautionary measures, such as the use of ankle monitors, or had been ordered to stay at the same location every night. They include Filipe Martins, a former adviser to Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro was convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison in September for attempting a coup to remain in office despite his 2022 electoral defeat.
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The trials against Bolsonaro and several generals and police officers accused of taking part in the plot have been closely followed in Brazil, where democracy was reinstated in 1985, after decades of military rule.