Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, accuses Supreme Court justice of behaving ‘like every dictator’, after assets and accounts frozen.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has ordered the freezing of the accounts and assets of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s third son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, while the former president may now face arrest over his activities on social media.
Eduardo, a Brazilian congressman who has been active in Washington, DC, drumming up support for his father’s court battle, called the decision “another arbitrary and criminal decision” by Moraes.
“Moraes relies on illegal decisions to protect himself from the consequences of his crimes. Like every dictator,” Eduardo Bolsonaro said in a post on X on Tuesday.
“If he thinks this will make me stop, I make it clear: I will not be intimidated, and I will not be silenced. I prepared myself for this moment,” he said.
“This is just another demonstration of abuse of power and confirms everything I have been denouncing in Washington and to authorities worldwide,” he added.
CNN Brasil first reported that the confidential court decision was issued on Saturday as part of a probe into Eduardo Bolsonaro’s conduct in the United States.
In a separate court order issued on Monday, Justice Moraes, who oversees the criminal case in which the former president is accused of plotting a coup to overturn the result of the 2022 election, said any attempt to circumvent a court ruling in which he ordered Bolsonaro to wear an ankle bracelet and banned him from using social media could result in arrest.
Brazilian news outlet G1 reported that Moraes summoned Bolsonaro’s lawyers to clarify their client’s alleged non-compliance with his court order restricting his use of social media. According to G1, Moraes gave the lawyers 24 hours to present an explanation, adding that if the defence does not adequately justify Bolsonaro’s online behaviour, he may order the immediate arrest of the former president.
On Friday, Bolsonaro described the decision by Moraes to prohibit his social media use as “cowardice”, and said he intended to continue engaging with the media to ensure his voice was heard.
Vera Chemim, a Sao Paulo-based constitutional lawyer, told the Reuters news agency that she believed the country’s former leader is now on shaky ground, noting that media interviews, while not explicitly mentioned in the court order, could still be used to justify Bolsonaro’s arrest.
“Bolsonaro is now completely silenced,” she said. “Any misstep could lead to a preventive arrest.”
The tightening restrictions on Bolsonaro come after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Brazilian court officials, and specifically Justice Moraes, were conducting a “political witch-hunt” against the former president. As a result, the US was revoking travel visas for “Moraes and his allies on the court, as well as their immediate family members”, Rubio said.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula swiftly labelled Washington’s decision to impose visa bans on court officials “arbitrary” and “baseless”, saying that foreign interference in his country’s judiciary was “unacceptable”.
Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian goods starting on August 1, as he called on Lula to drop the charges against Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro, whose right-wing policies while in power earned him the nickname “Trump of the Tropics “, has denied that he led an attempt to overthrow the government but acknowledged taking part in meetings aimed at reversing the 2022 election outcome.