Brazilian judge puts coup plot convicts under house arrest after former police commander flees
SAO PAULO (AP) — A Brazilian judge on Saturday issued house arrest orders for 10 people who have been convicted and sentenced for participating in a plot to keep former President Jair Bolsonaro in power after he lost the 2022 election.
The decision by Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes came just hours after authorities in neighboring Paraguay arrested a former police commander, who also had been convicted in the plot and returned him to Brazil.
Silvinei Vasques, the former director of Brazil’s Federal Highway Police, was extradited to Brazil on Friday night, after he had secretly entered Paraguay and attempted to board a flight to El Salvador using Paraguayan documents. According to Brazilian police, Vasques tore off his ankle monitor on Thursday and drove to Paraguay in a rental car.
The 10 people subjected to house arrest orders Saturday had been facing cautionary measures, like the use of ankle monitors, or had been ordered to stay at the same location every night.
They include Filipe Martins, a former adviser to Bolsonaro. Martins’ lawyer, Jeffrey Chiquini, said on X that they will file an appeal.
“There is no greater injustice than condemning a person for the actions of another,” Chiquini said.
Bolsonaro was convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison in September for attempting a coup to remain in office despite his 2022 electoral defeat.
The trials against Bolsonaro and several generals and police officers accused of participating in the plot have been closely followed in Brazil, where democracy was reinstated in 1985, after decades of military rule.
U.S. President Donald Trump initially described the proceedings against ideological ally Bolsonaro as a “witch hunt” and raised tariffs on Brazilian imports over Bolsonaro’s trial, which he described as an “international disgrace.”
The Trump administration had also placed financial sanctions against de Moraes, the lead judge in Bolsonaro’s trial. But the U.S. government appears to have softened its stance following Bolsonaro’s conviction. .
In November, Trump signed an executive order lowering tariffs on Brazilian beef and coffee, two of the country’s largest exports to the United States.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury lifted sanctions against de Moraes and his wife, as both nations continue to engage in trade negotiations.
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Manuel Rueda reported from Bogota, Colombia.
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