Moraes may decree Bolsonaro’s arrest if he has failed to have a precautionary, says jurist

Based on the new evidence presented yesterday (20) by the Federal Police, the Supreme Court Minister (STF), Alexandre de Moraes, should decide in the next few hours, whether the precautionary measures already imposed on former President Jair Bolsonaro or takes other measures.

In yesterday’s PF operation, in addition to Jair Bolsonaro and federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP), Pastor Silas Malafaia was also the target of search and seizure. This is the first time the pastor appears involved in a PF action for involvement with the Bolsonaro family.

This investigation concerns the coercion of the case, it is an instruction of justice, which involves the three targets of yesterday’s operation, but has no direct relationship with the inquiry of the January 8 coup, whose trial of Jair Bolsonaro is scheduled for September 2 in the first class of the STF.

Also read: Bolsonaro’s lawyer says former president ‘never considered leaving Brazil’

Based on the operation, the Federal Police received a series of information through evidence and documents that would breach the precautionary measures and requested explanations.

According to USP jurist and criminal professor Pierpaolo Bottini, “Minister Alexandre de Moraes has many elements to assess what the most correct decision would be and have to wait for explanations from everyone involved to understand the weight that each thing has,” he says. He also adds that one must know the size and extent of the explanations the defense will give.

According to Bottini, “if Minister Alexandre de Moraes understands that the precautionary have been failed, the Code of Criminal Procedure provides for the replacement of the precautionary measure by a pre -trial detention.”

In the material seized by the PF, there are a number of audios and messages, which had been erased and were recovered from Bolsonaro’s cell phone. Messages reveal, for example, an asylum request in Argentina.

President Bolsonaro’s defense said by a statement that “he received with surprise yesterday, the decision of his formal indictment by the Federal Police. The elements pointed out in the decision will be duly clarified within the deadline signed by the Rapporteur Minister, noting that there was never the breach of any previously imposed precautionary measure.”