Brazil.- AMP.- Brazilian police report Bolsonaro and his son to the Supreme Court for "coercion"

The former president tried to request political asylum from the Javier Milei government.

He accuses influential evangelical pastor Silas Malafaia of "intentionally participating in a criminal enterprise" with Bolsonaro, father and son.

MADRID, 21 (EUROPA PRESS)

The Brazilian Federal Police formally charged former President Jair Bolsonaro and his son, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, on Wednesday with attempting to obstruct the far-right leader's investigation into a coup d'état, including charges of coercion, by financing a plot to obstruct the case from the United States.

The body presented this complaint in a report submitted this Wednesday to the Supreme Court, after concluding its investigation into Eduardo Bolsonaro's actions in Washington to promote retaliatory measures against the Brazilian government and judiciary, according to Agencia Brasil, a case opened in May at the request of Attorney General Paulo Gonet.

The former president, in fact, has been under house arrest since August 4 for violating some of the precautionary measures imposed due to the alleged financing of up to two million reais (300,000 euros) to campaign through his son in the United States since March in favor of 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian imports and sanctions against Brazilian authorities, including Supreme Court Justice and rapporteur of the case, Alexandre de Moraes, at a time when President Donald Trump has shown unusual interest in his legal situation.

Brazilian police have also revealed that Jair Bolsonaro considered seeking political asylum in Argentina, also headed by the far-right leader Javier Milei, after finding a document on his phone in which he claimed to be the victim of "persecution in (his) country of origin for primarily political reasons and crimes."

According to investigations, the 33-page document was unsigned and undated, although it had been stored on the former president's device since 2024, when he was accused of attempting a coup against current Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Police indicate that Jair Bolsonaro "had in his possession a document that would allow him to escape from Brazil to Argentina, particularly after the Federal Police initiated an investigation into the materiality and criminal authority of the crimes of violent abolition of the democratic rule of law by a criminal organization."

"The information found indicates, therefore, that former President Jair Bolsonaro had in his possession a document that would allow him to escape from Brazil to Argentina, particularly after the Federal Police initiated an investigation into the materiality and criminal authority of the crimes of violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law by a criminal organization."

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a search for Silas Malafaia, an evangelical pastor allied with Bolsonaro and a regular at marches calling for his amnesty, citing "strong evidence of his participation in the criminal enterprise, intentionally and with unity of purpose, of" Bolsonaro father and son.

The agents seized his phone and impounded his passport, prohibiting him from leaving the country or maintaining contact with the defendants upon his arrival at Rio de Janeiro airport on a flight from Lisbon.

Judge De Moraes made this decision after the police included Malafaia in the investigation against the Bolsonaros for obstruction of justice, accusing him of having participated "in the definition of coercion strategies and dissemination of false narratives, as well as in the direction of coordinated actions," according to the newspaper 'Folha do Sao Paulo'. The objective of this "well-known religious leader," investigators point out, was "to coerce members of the Judiciary's leadership in order to prevent any judicial action within the Supreme Court from opposing the criminal group's illicit interests."