Brazil’s Bolsonaro placed under 24-hour police watch over ‘flight risk’
Ex-president’s coup-plotting trial nears a verdict, with prosecutors pointing to a drafted asylum request as evidence he may try to flee
A Brazilian judge on Tuesday declared far right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest while awaiting the verdict in his coup-plotting trial, a “flight risk” and placed him under round-the-clock watch.
Bolsonaro faces 40 years in prison if convicted of plotting to cling onto power after losing the 2022 elections to left-winger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The verdict in the case is expected early next month.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is presiding over the trial, asked the police to carry out “full-time surveillance” of former army captain Bolsonaro, according to a court document seen by Agence France-Presse.
Moraes was acting on a request from the Brazilian prosecutor’s office.
The prosecutors pointed to recent revelations that Bolsonaro planned to seek asylum in Argentina last year as proof that the 70-year-old could seek to evade a possible lengthy jail term.