Brazil Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered on Monday the seizure of Flávio Bolsonaro’s passports and forbade the conservative Senator from leaving the country.
The order comes just hours after Sunday’s presidential runoff election in which Bolsonaro lost against socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Globonews reports that Justice de Moraes signed the court order on Sunday, the day of the runoff election. In the order, de Moraes justified the seizure of Bolsonaro’s passports by alleging that the measure is part of a probe involving the senator and Brazilian lawyer Willer Tomaz regarding money laundering allegations involving Tomaz’s betting companies. Globonews pointed out that Bolsonaro and Tomaz have acknowledged being friends, but both have denied being business partners and have rejected the allegations.
By order of de Moraes, Bolsonaro was instructed to relinquish his now-cancelled regular Brazilian passport and the diplomatic passport issued to him as an elected senator. Additionally, the justice ordered that Bolsonaro must relinquish any other foreign passports that he may be in possession of, while also forbidding him from communicating with Willer Tomaz.
In a video published on his official Instagram account, Sen. Bolsonaro detailed that he received the order to relinquish his passports to the Brazilian Federal Police (PF) on Monday, right as he was coming out from visiting his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, at his home in Brasília where he is under house arrest.
Bolsonaro argued in the video that de Moraes allegedly issued the order based on remarks recently made by his brother, former Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, who gave his opinion that the former presidential candidate should “leave the country” if he were to lose the runoff against President Lula. Eduardo Bolsonaro has resided in the United States since 2025 after he requested political asylum citing a persecution campaign against him led by de Moraes. Earlier this month, Justice de Moraes ordered that Eduardo Bolsonaro begin a four-year prison sentence for discussing Brazilian politics in the United States.
Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro affirmed in his video Monday that he had no intention of leaving Brazil, but has nevertheless been forbidden to do so by de Moraes.
“Alexandre de Moraes’ decision was based on a statement Eduardo made on October 23, claiming that I should leave the country if I lost the election. I never said that. Is that a reason to take away my passport? Is that justice?” Bolsonaro asked in the video.
“What’s more, this decision was made on Sunday night, right after the election results were announced. Think about it with me: If I had won the election, would the same thing have happened? Harassing me in the middle of the street?” he continued.
The conservative senator nevertheless affirmed that he will comply and relinquish his passports to the Brazilian federal police, stressing that he will defend himself against this “aberration” and “clear attempt to intimidate me.” Poder 360 reports that Brazilian lawyer Frederick Wassef, a longtime ally of former President Jair Bolsonaro, met with Flávio on Monday afternoon hours after he was ordered to relinquish his passports. The topic of the conversation has not been publicly disclosed at press time.
President Lula defeated Bolsonaro in Sunday’s runoff, being reelected for a fourth presidential term that is slated to begin in January. Sen. Bolsonaro initially rejected the results and affirmed that it was “impossible” to recognize them, citing a controversy surrounding the runoff after Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin — President Lula’s ex-lawyer — issued a last-minute court order extending the voting times for an additional two hours.
Although Bolsonaro originally announced that he would seek the annulment of the election, citing the irregular and unprecedented situation caused by Zanin’s court order, the conservative senator has since then stated that he will no longer question the election and will instead lead the opposition to the socialist government. He has stated that he will request the revocation of the Lula presidential ticket, accusing Lula of “abuse.” He has not officially recognized Lula’s victory at press time.
On Monday evening, the Liberal Party (PL) led by Bolsonaro formally recognized the socialist president’s victory in the election in an official statement signed by PL’s president Valdemar Costa Neto. Per the outlet Jovem Pan, Costa Neto said in the statement that the party will still seek “answers” from Brazilian institutions regarding the irregular situations experienced during Sunday’s runoff election.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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