Brazil’s Supreme Court orders house arrest for former President Jair Bolsonaro

Written by Maurice Savarese

SAO PAULO (AP) The Supreme Court of Brazil on Monday ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly orchestrating a coup plot to stay in power despite losing the 2022 election, to be placed under house arrest. The case has engulfed the South American nation as it contends with a trade war with the Trump administration.

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After U.S. President Donald Trump openly linked Bolsonaro’s legal predicament—a Trump ally—to a 50% tariff on imported Brazilian products, the trial is gaining new attention. The head of the United States has referred to the proceedings as a witch hunt.

Bolsonaro is accused by the prosecution of leading a criminal group that planned to rig the election, including assassination plots against Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes and President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva. The ruling on Monday came after the highest court’s judgment from last month, which mandated that Bolsonaro wear an electronic ankle monitor and set a curfew for his actions while the case was pending.

The injunction was given by Justice Moraes, who is in charge of the court case against Bolsonaro. According to his ruling, the 70-year-old far-right politician had breached the preventive measures that were put in place against him by sharing content on the social media accounts of his three sons who are lawmakers.

Bolsonaro, who led Brazil from 2019 to 2022, has disseminated statements that explicitly advocate and incite attacks against the Supreme Court and openly favor foreign intervention in the Brazilian judiciary, Moraes continued.

Brazil s former President Jair Bolsonaro gives a press conference outside the Senate in Brasilia, Brazil, Thursday, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis Nova)

People take part in a demonstration to protest Brazil s former President Jair Bolsonaro s Supreme Court trial where he faces charges for alleged involvement in a 2022 coup attempt, at Copacabana Beach, in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

People take part in a demonstration to protest former President Jair Bolsonaro s Supreme Court trial where he faces charges for alleged involvement in a 2022 coup attempt, at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Brazil s former President Jair Bolsonaro, wearing an electronic ankle bracelet on his left ankle, attends a religious service at an evangelical church on the outskirts of Brasilia, Brazil, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

In the streets of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, tens of thousands of Bolsonaro supporters begged the Brazilian Congress to grant him and hundreds of others who are on trial for their roles in the Jan. 8, 2023, destruction of government buildings in the country’s capital, Brasilia, a pardon.

The highest court’s most recent ruling maintains Bolsonaro on ankle monitoring, restricts visits to him to family members and attorneys, and confiscates all of his cell phones from his house.