President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said, this Sunday (23), that “everyone knows” what former president Jair Bolsonaro did, and that the Court took the decision that was up to it in condemning the former president. 
Lula gave an interview to the press in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he participated in the G20 Leaders’ Summit, and was asked about the Bolsonaro’s arrest this Saturday (22), determined by the minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Alexandre de Moraes.
“I’m not commenting on a Supreme Court decision. The Court made a decision, he was tried, he had every right to the presumption of innocence, it took practically two and a half years of investigation, plea bargaining, trial. In other words, the Court decided, it’s decided, he will serve the sentence that the Court determined and everyone knows what he did”, he told journalists.
Lula was also asked about his relationship with the President of the United States, Donald Trump, who retaliated against Brazil and to STF ministers due to Bolsonaro’s trial for an attempted coup.
“I think Trump has to know that we are a sovereign country, that our Justice decides and what decides here is decided”, added the Brazilian president.
Risk of escape
In the decision that determined Bolsonaro’s preventive detention, the minister Moraes cited possible risk of escape in the face of Bolsonaro’s attempt to violate the electronic ankle monitor and the vigil called by his son, senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), near the house where the former president was under house arrest.
Jair Bolsonaro was taken to the PF Regional Superintendence in the Federal Districtfrom where he participated in the hearing via videoconference, this Sunday.
This Friday (21), former president Bolsonaro used a soldering iron to try to open the electronic ankle monitorwhich generated an alert to the State Secretariat for Penitentiary Administration of the Federal District (Seap), responsible for monitoring the equipment.
Minister Alexandre de Moraes gave the defense 24 hours to comment on the attempted violation, a deadline that ends this Sunday at 4:30 pm.
In custody hearingBolsonaro claimed that “he had a certain paranoia from Friday to Saturday due to medications he has been taking prescribed by different doctors and which interacted inappropriately.”
He further stated that “he had no intention of escaping and that there was no break in the belt [da tornozeleira]”.
Regarding the vigil called by his son, the former president said that “the location of the vigil is seven hundred meters from his house, with no possibility of creating any disturbance that could facilitate a hypothetical escape.”
Lawyers will appeal the preventive detention decision. According to them, the electronic ankle bracelet was only placed to “cause humiliation” to the former president and that the escape with the equipment breaking is just a narrative to justify the arrest.
This Monday (24), the STF will analyze the decision of Minister Alexandre de Moraes. The STF minister, Flávio Dino, called an extraordinary virtual session of the First Panel to endorse the decision.
Conviction
Sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison in the coup plot, Bolsonaro and the other defendants could have their sentences carried out in the coming weeks. Last week, the First Panel of the Court rejected the so-called embargoes for declaration by the former president and six other defendants to reverse the convictions and avoid the execution of sentences in a closed regime.
This Sunday, the deadline for the defenses to present their last appeals ends. If appeals are rejected, arrests will be carried out.
The former president’s defense even requested, on Friday, the granting of humanitarian house arrest to Jair Bolsonaro, which was rejected by Moraes this Saturday. According to lawyers, Bolsonaro has permanent illnesses, which require “intense medical monitoring” and, for this reason, the former president should remain under house arrest.
Bolsonaro was detained in his homein Brasília, due to non-compliance with precautionary measures already established by the STF.
They were determined in the investigation in which federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP), son of the former president, is being investigated for his actions with the Donald Trump government to promote retaliatory measures against the Brazilian government and Supreme Court ministers.
