to the STF, the former president’s defense claims that the alleged escape is ‘unfounded’

Former president Jair Bolsonaro’s defense declared as “illogical” the idea that he would request political refuge from Hungary, and that the possibility of a preventive arrest warrant “was not imminent” when he was at the European country’s embassy in Brasília, last month. The team also stated that the former president always adopted a “collaborative” stance with the Brazilian justice system.

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The statements were made to Minister of the Federal Supreme Court Alexandre de Moraes, who granted Bolsonaro 48 hours to clarify the reasons for his two-day stay in the consular building between February 14th and 16th.

The case was revealed by the American newspaper New York Times, which had access to images from the location’s security cameras. The Federal Police opened an investigation to verify whether Bolsonaro was seeking political asylum at the embassy and whether this constituted an escape attempt. The former president’s stay occurred four days after his passport was seized by the PF in an operation investigating him for plotting a coup d’état after the 2022 elections.

“There are, therefore, no minimal reasons or even a legal scenario to justify the assumption of any type of movement aimed at obtaining asylum in a foreign embassy or that indicate an intention to evade legal authorities or obstruct, in any way, the application of criminal law”, said Bolsonaro’s defense represented by lawyers Paulo Cunha Bueno, Daniel Tesser and Fabio Wajngarten.

Lawyers classified as “illogical” the idea that Bolsonaro would request political refuge from Hungary, which is governed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a friend of the former president. “The very imposition of recent precautionary measures made this assumption highly unlikely and unfounded”, stated the defense, referring to the precautionary measures ordered by Moraes on February 8, such as the ban on Bolsonaro being absent from the country and the obligation to deliver the passport.

In the text, the defense classified these restrictive measures as “unnecessary”, and asked: “What reason could there be fear of an unlikely, reprehensible and unenforceable precautionary segregation?”

To prove what it called Bolsonaro’s “high collaborative stance”, the defense recalled that he asked Moraes for authorization to make two international trips – one to Argentina for President Javier Milei’s inauguration ceremony and the other to Israel at the invitation of the prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu. This second one ended up not happening.

The lawyers also highlighted that he “never failed to appear” at any act for which he was summoned by the Court. And that his home and work addresses are known.

As a justification for staying at the embassy, ​​the lawyers pointed out that, despite no longer having a mandate, Bolsonaro continues with an “extremely active agenda of political commitments”, which includes meetings with “foreign leaders aligned with the conservative profile”.