Moraes denies returning passport requested by Bolsonaro

Travel

The former president’s lawyers had asked the magistrate for authorization so that he could go to Israel between May 12 and 18

Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), rejected former president Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) request to have his passport returned in order to travel to Israel.

The former president’s lawyers had asked the magistrate for authorization so that he could go to Israel between May 12 and 18 at the invitation of the country’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu.

Bolsonaro had his passport seized by the Federal Police on Moraes’ orders in February in the “Tempus Veritatis” operation, which targeted the former president, former advisors and allies, including high-ranking military personnel.

The minister also prohibited the former president from maintaining contact with other people being investigated, including the national president of the PL, Valdemar Costa Neto.

In the decision that vetoed Bolsonaro’s trip to Israel, Moraes stated that “the precautionary measure remains necessary and appropriate”, since the “investigation, including regarding the applicant, is still ongoing, as noted by the Attorney General’s Office of Republic, by expressing its rejection of the request.”

“The investigations are ongoing, which is why it is absolutely premature to remove the restriction imposed on the person under investigation, as previously decided by me in absolutely similar situations,” he said.

The Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, gave an opinion against the return of the passport as he understood that “assumptions of the measure remain justified in the case”.

“There is no news of an event that would make the decision that determined the retention of the applicant’s passport unsurmountable. The measure in question is precisely to prevent the person subject to the measure from leaving the country, given the danger to the development of criminal investigations and possible application of criminal law,” he said.

The veto on the return of the passport comes after the member of the Supreme Court ordered Bolsonaro to explain why he stayed from February 12 to 14 at the Hungarian Embassy, ​​four days after the PF operation.

The former president responded that it was “illogical” to imagine that it was an escape attempt. There, Bolsonaro could not be subject to an arrest warrant, as it is a building protected by diplomatic conventions.

The former president is an ally of Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orbán, one of the main exponents of the far right in Europe. He met with Orbán in Buenos Aires in December 2023, during the inauguration of Argentine President Javier Milei.

The former president’s defense, however, stated that he stayed at the embassy just to maintain contact with the country’s authorities. “I frequent embassies across Brazil, I talk to ambassadors,” repeated Bolsonaro.

*With information from Folha de S.Paulo

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