Police claim Brazil’s ex-President Jair Bolsonaro wrote letter seeking asylum in Argentina as coup investigation ramped up in 2024.
Brazil’s federal police said that messages found on the mobile phone of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro showed he once wanted to flee to Argentina and request political asylum from Argentinian President Javier Milei.
The police said in a report released on Wednesday that the letter seeking asylum was saved on Bolsonaro’s mobile phone in February 2024, just days after the former president’s passport was seized amid an investigation of his involvement in an alleged coup plot.
It was unclear whether the asylum request was sent, and the Argentinian president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The asylum request document revealed on Wednesday was part of the final police report that formally accused Bolsonaro and his United States-based son, Eduardo, of working to interfere in the ongoing legal process related to the ex-president’s forthcoming trial for allegedly plotting a coup.
Bolsonaro’s trial is expected to start on September 2, in which he faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of plotting to overthrow his democratically elected successor as president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in 2022.
Police have now recommended that the ex-president and his son be charged with “coercion in the judicial process” and “abolition of the democratic law” related to interference in the coup case. The combined sentence for the two offences could reach up to 12 years in prison.
Brazilian news outlet O Dia said on Wednesday that recordings were also found on a device seized during the police investigation of Bolsonaro, which indicated “attempts to intimidate authorities and impede the progress of the investigations related to the inquiry into the attack on democracy, including attempts to use external influence”.
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Bolsonaro – who has been under house arrest since early August – has maintained his innocence in the coup trial, which US President Donald Trump, an ally, has called a “witch-hunt”.
Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, stepped down from his position as a Brazilian congressman in March and moved to the US, where he is campaigning for the Trump administration to intercede on his father’s behalf.
Those lobbying efforts have been successful, with the Trump administration taking punitive action against Brazil over the case, including sanctions against court officials.
Trump has also imposed a massive 50 percent tariff on many Brazilian exports to the US, citing Bolsonaro’s trial.