BRASILIA: Brazil’s Supreme Court issued search warrants and restraining orders against former president Jair Bolsonaro on Friday, banning him from contacting foreign officials for allegedly courting the interference of US President Donald Trump.

Federal police raided Bolsonaro’s home and he was ordered to wear an ankle monitor, adding to legal pressure that Trump has tried to relieve with a steep tariff on Brazilian goods.

The court’s crackdown on Bolsonaro added to signs that Trump’s tactics could backfire in Brazil, compounding trouble for his ideological ally and rallying public support behind a defiant leftist government.

Bolsonaro was also banned from contacting foreign officials, using social media and approaching embassies, according to the decision issued by Supreme Court’s Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who cited a “concrete possibility” of him fleeing the country.

He added that Bolsonaro had asked the “head of state of a foreign nation” to interfere in the Brazilian courts, which he characterised as an attack on national sovereignty.

Bolsonaro is on trial before the Supreme Court on charges of plotting a coup to stop his rival, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, from taking office in Jan 2023.

Bolsonaro, who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022 and calls the case against him a political persecution, told reporters on Friday that he never considered fleeing Brazil. He said the latest court orders were meant for his “supreme humiliation.” Trump has in recent weeks pressed Brazil to stop the legal case against Bolsonaro.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2025