BRASILIA/SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Lawyers for former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro told the Supreme Court on Friday that the draft of a request for asylum in Argentina found on his phone by police cannot be considered an indication of flight risk, since it was dated last year.
“The fact is that, with or without the draft, the former president did not flee,” his lawyers said.
In the document sent to the court, the defense also denied that Bolsonaro breached any restraining order imposed by the court against him.
Bolsonaro’s defense was responding to an order by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes to clarify an alleged failure to comply with court-imposed restraining orders and his flight risk, after police presented a report with fresh accusations against the former president.
Police formally accused Bolsonaro and his son Eduardo on Wednesday of working to interfere with the former president’s Supreme Court trial for allegedly plotting a coup to overturn the 2022 election.
In Friday’s document, Bolsonaro’s lawyers called the police report a “political tool” aimed at demoralizing the former president.
Earlier this month Bolsonaro was put under house arrest and banned from using his phone, after Moraes found the former president failed to comply with restraining orders imposed on him for allegedly courting U.S. President Donald Trump’s interference in the case.
On Friday, Bolsonaro’s lawyers asked Moraes to reconsider the house arrest order.
(Reporting by Ricardo Brito in Brasilia; additional reporting and writing by Andre Romani; Editing by Kylie Madry)
