Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to be placed under house arrest amid his trial for trying to overturn the 2022 election results after his defeat.
This move has heightened tensions with the United States, after then-President Donald Trump described the case as a “witch hunt” and imposed a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports.
On Monday, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ruled that Bolsonaro must remain under house arrest and is prohibited from using mobile phones. He is also barred from receiving visitors except for his legal team and those authorized by the court.
According to Moraes, Bolsonaro breached the judicial restrictions imposed last month by posting messages on his three sons’ social media accounts that “clearly encouraged and incited attacks against the Federal Supreme Court and openly supported foreign interference in Brazil’s judiciary.”
Last week, Trump accused Brasília of human rights abuses and unjustly targeting Bolsonaro, while implementing a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods—the highest rate currently imposed by the US.
Speaking at a Workers’ Party event in Brasília, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva condemned the US sanctions, accusing Washington of using Brazil’s internal matters as a pretext for the tariffs and emphasizing that the US “already helped orchestrate a coup” in the country.
