Police blame Jair Bolsonaro and son for obstructing justice

Police in Brazil have accused former President Jeir Bolsonaro, 70, and his 41-year-old son Eduardo for preventing justice.

They claim that the two have tried to intervene in the process currently underway against the older Bolsonaro, in which he is accused of a leading attempt to coup after his defeat in the 2022 presidential election.

Police say they have found a Jair Bolsonaro mobile phone document, which suggests that he has planned to avoid criminal proceedings by seeking asylum in Argentina.

They also accuse Eduardo Bolsonaro of lobbying Trump’s administration on behalf of his father – which they say they have led to the imposition of penalty tariffs on Brazilian goods.

The police report on 170 pages comes less than two weeks before the start of the last phase of the coup test and accumulates additional pressure on the former leader.

Jair Bolsonaro denies the conspiracy to cancel his loss in the 2022 election of his left rival Louis Inasio Lula da Silva.

But he questioned the justice of the proceedings against him, claiming that he was the goal of “political witch hunting”.

He told the News Agency Reuters last month that it was “undoubtedly”, the five judges of the Supreme Court, charged with the execution of the sentence, have already decided to condemn it.

But at that time, he had once denied that he had made plans to try to avoid the process.

“I have never considered leaving the country, never,” he told Reuters, adding that he believed that coup fees were intended to “remove” him to run for president in 2026.

But in a report filed on Wednesday, police claimed to have found a project for a letter on Jair Bolsonaro’s mobile phone, who wants political asylum in Argentina.

The 33 -page letter is addressed directly to Argentine President Javier Miley, according to the report. Miley condemned Bolsonaro’s “pursuit” and is regarded as a political ally of the former leader.

The letter was not dated, but police claimed that it was last modified by phone in February 2024, shortly after Bolsonaro had to hand over his passport to the police.

It is unclear whether the project was once sent and the Argentine government source told Reuters that the Argentine President’s service did not receive a letter from Bolsonaro.

But police claim that the project shows Bolsonaro’s intention to avoid justice.

Alexander de Moraes, the judge, who controls the process in Bolsonaro, gave 48 hours to the former President’s lawyers to provide an explanation for the alleged asylum request.

Jair Bolsonaro is currently under house arrest and is already forbidden to publish on social media and contact his son Eduardo to violate the court’s restrictions on him.

The report also accuses Eduardo Bolsonaro of trying to influence his father’s process by lobbing the Trump administration to put pressure on the Brazilian government and the Supreme Court.

In July, Trump announced that he would raise the tariffs for Brazilian imports to 50%, citing Brazil’s treatment of Jair Bolsonaro as a trigger for the hike.

In addition, the US State Department has banned eight Brazilian courts of the Supreme Court – including Alexander de Moraes – from a trip to the United States.

Eduardo Bolsonaro, who has been in the United States for almost six months, has entered the social media on Wednesday to deny the allegations against him.

He said his actions in the US were never intended to influence ongoing proceedings in Brazil and that his goal was to “restore individual freedoms in the country.”