Brazil’s Bolsonaro to meet a judge a day after his early arrest

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will meet a judge on Sunday to discuss the legality of his imprisonment during his first full day of preemptive jailing at federal police headquarters in the capital, Brasilia.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Bolsonaro’s jailing on Saturday as he was considered a flight risk. De Moraes received information that the far-right leader’s ankle monitor was violated at 12:08 a.m. on Saturday.

Bolsonaro was jailed just days before starting to serve his 27-year-plus prison sentence. A panel of Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled in September that Bolsonaro tried to stage a coup and keep the presidency after his defeat by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022.

On Monday, the same panel will vote on the preemptive arrest order.

The 70-year-old Bolsonaro’s meeting with an assistant judge on Sunday is procedural but another opportunity for his lawyers to argue he should remain under house arrest due to poor health. De Moraes has denied that request.

De Moraes authorized Bolsonaro to be visited by former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro, who was out of Brasilia when federal police agents took her husband into custody.

Lula made his first comments about his predecessor’s jailing at the G20 group of nations meeting in South Africa. “The court ruled, that’s decided. Everyone knows what he did,” Lula told journalists.

Outside the federal police headquarters, some pro-Bolsonaro protesters held banners calling for Lula and de Moraes to be removed from their posts, while detractors of the former president celebrated his jailing.

___ Savarese reported from Sao Paulo, Brazil.