Brazilian police search former president Bolsonaro’s home for weapons

Director of the Brazil Program at the Inter-American Dialogue Bruna Santos on why Jair Bolsonaro will likely be found guilty for trying to overturn an election.

SAO PAULO, July 8 - Brazil’s federal police searched Jair Bolsonaro’s home on Wednesday for any unauthorized weapons, a court ruling showed, but the former president’s lawyer said nothing was found.

The raid came days after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes allowed Bolsonaro, 71, to continue serving a 27-year prison sentence under house arrest, despite an incident last month when a firearm owned by the former president was seized from a member of his security detail at a police checkpoint.

Bolsonaro had been required to surrender all weapons as part of a previous court order.

In a ruling made public on Wednesday, Moraes authorized a search-and-seizure operation at Bolsonaro’s house to locate firearms, ammunition, accessories and registration documents that he may have access to.

The search was not a surprise and was carried out quickly, according to a person close to Bolsonaro, with police finding no weapons or other relevant items at the residence.

“The defense had already informed the authorities of the location of all the weapons. The result: nothing was found,” Joao Henrique de Freitas, a lawyer for Bolsonaro, wrote on X.

According to Moraes’ ruling, Bolsonaro’s lawyers told the court that some weapons had been handed over to federal police, while others were being held by the Army Police Battalion in Brasilia. However, the justice argued that questions remained about the whereabouts of at least one firearm.

Moraes said the continued possession of firearms by Bolsonaro despite the court order requiring their surrender was “incompatible” with the court’s previous ruling.

Reporting by Luciana Magalhaes, Isabel Teles , Eduardo Simoes;

Editing by Andrew Heavens, Brendan O’Boyle and Deepa Babington