Brazilian Supreme Court judge issues arrest warrant for Eduardo Bolsonaro

News|Courts

A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has issued an arrest warrant for Eduardo Bolsonaro, brother of presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro, a move likely to heat up the hard-fought race.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued the arrest warrant on Thursday, weeks before a runoff election for the country’s presidency between incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Flavio Bolsonaro, the favourite to win.

list of 3 items

list 1 of 3Why Flavio Bolsonaro outperformed the polls in Brazil’s election
list 2 of 3Brazil’s presidential race: Three key takeaways from the first round
list 3 of 3Bolsonaro favourite to win: What Brazil’s first round of elections tells us

end of list

In June, the Brazilian Supreme Court convicted Eduardo Bolsonaro on charges of lobbying the US to interfere in the trial of his father, former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro.

Eduardo Bolsonaro has been a key link between his brother and the Trump administration, accompanying him to a May meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House.

Both sides of Brazil’s deeply polarised partisan divide have long accused each other of corruption and lawfare as political drama reaches a crescendo in the buildup to the October 25 runoff.

Lobbying the US

In March 2025, Eduardo Bolsonaro pledged he would move to the US full time to “focus 100 percent” of his energy on freeing his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro.

The move cost him his seat in the Brazilian National Congress and his job as a federal police investigator.

The 42-year-old former lawmaker lives in Texas and is a green card holder.

He was convicted of lobbying to impose sanctions on members of the Brazilian government and to implement higher tariffs on the country’s exports during the trial of his father.

Supreme Court justice

De Moraes, whom the Bolsonaro family regards as a political enemy, chaired the investigation that led to Jair Bolsonaro being sentenced in September 2025 to 27 years in prison for plotting to stage a coup.

The justice said in his ruling that Eduardo Bolsonaro should start serving his four-year sentence immediately.

“The defendant cannot benefit from his own wrongdoing by fleeing the national territory to an unknown location for the purpose of thwarting the application of criminal law,” de Moraes said.

De Moraes also cancelled Eduardo Bolsonaro’s Brazilian passport and instructed the country’s federal police to arrest him if he returns to Brazil.