SÃO PAULO — Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued an arrest warrant Thursday for Eduardo Bolsonaro, a son of former President Jair Bolsonaro and brother of presidential front-runner Flávio Bolsonaro, and ordered him to begin serving his prison sentence immediately, the Associated Press reported.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, 42, a former congressman who lives in Texas and holds a U.S. green card, was convicted in June of coercion for lobbying the Trump administration to sanction Brazilian officials and impose higher tariffs on Brazil’s exports during his father’s coup trial. Moraes declared the case closed to further appeals, ordered him to serve a sentence of four years and two months, initially under a semi-open regime, and canceled his Brazilian passports, Agência Brasil reported. The warrant was entered in the national arrest database, and federal police were told to detain him if he returns.
“The defendant cannot benefit from his own wrongdoing by fleeing the national territory to an unknown location for the purpose of thwarting the application of criminal law,” Moraes said in his ruling, according to the AP report published by Al Jazeera. Agência Brasil said he is unlikely to serve the sentence while abroad; the AP noted that the U.S. and Brazil have had an extradition agreement since 1961 but that it was unclear whether its terms would apply.
The ruling came less than three weeks before the Oct. 25 runoff between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro, who won the most votes in Sunday’s first round. Eduardo Bolsonaro has been a key link between his brother and the Trump administration and took him to meet Trump at the White House on May 26. His long absence in the U.S. cost him his seat in Congress and his job with the federal police. Moraes also led the investigation that resulted in Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced last year to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup.
Sources: Associated Press (via Al Jazeera), Associated Press (via ABC News), Agência Brasil
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