Brazil's Ex-President Jair Bolsonaro Moved To Prison Days Before His 27-Year Sentence Begins

Last Updated:November 22, 2025, 17:32 IST

Bolsonaro, 70, who has been under house arrest since August, was taken to the headquarters of the country’s federal police in the capital, Brasilia.

Brazil’s Former President Jair Bolsonaro

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

Bolsonaro, 70, who has been under house arrest since August, was taken to the headquarters of the country’s federal police in the capital, Brasilia. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the case, said 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 the arrest to The Associated Press, saying the former president was taken from his house in a gated community in the upscale Jardim Botanico neighborhood to the federal police headquarters. “He has been imprisoned, but I don’t know why," Celso Vilardi, one of his lawyers, told AFP.

Why Was Bolsonaro Arrested?

Moraes said Bolsonaro, who is yet to begin serving his term, was a “high flight risk". The ruling said the former president violated the terms of his electronic monitoring and planned to break his ankle bracelet during a demonstration planned for Saturday, called by his son outside Bolsonaro’s house in Brasilia.

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

Moraes further said that “Brazil’s democracy has reached sufficient maturity to steer away and prosecute pathetic illegal initiatives to defend the criminal organisation" responsible for the coup attempt.

Bolsonaro’s Legal Team Appeals To Serve Sentence At Home

Bolsonaro was put under house arrest in early August, just weeks before he was found guilty in his coup trial. His lawyers urged Brazil’s Supreme Court to allow him to serve his sentence at home, citing his deteriorating health.

They had previously argued that Bolsonaro’s medical needs were “absolutely incompatible with a common prison environment." Notably, the former president suffers ongoing consequences of a stab wound to the abdomen received during a knife attack on the campaign trail in 2018. His lawyers said he has been hospitalised three times and required continuous treatment for pulmonary infections, esophagitis and gastritis, apart from skin cancer.

The far-right leader was sentenced in September to 27 years in prison over a plot to stop Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office in 2022 following Bolsonaro’s election defeat.

News world Brazil's Ex-President Jair Bolsonaro Moved To Prison Days Before His 27-Year Sentence Begins

Read More