Flávio Bolsonaro says court barred him from leaving Brazil after election defeat

Travel ban after the runoff

The defeated Brazilian presidential candidate, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, said on Monday that the Supreme Court had ordered him to surrender his passports and barred him from leaving the country. According to him, this happened the day after incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won the runoff election. Anadolu reported on the measure citing a video the politician posted on the X platform.

How the decision itself is described

Bolsonaro said the order was handed to him by Federal Police officers after a visit to his father — former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest. According to the senator, the decision was issued overnight into Sunday by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, shortly after Lula's victory was announced. However, a copy of the court ruling was not publicly available, and the legal grounds for the travel ban remained unclear — a point the outlet itself noted.

The rationale and the politician's reaction

Bolsonaro himself linked the measure to a statement made on October 23 by his brother Eduardo Bolsonaro, which hinted that he should leave Brazil if he lost the election. “I never thought about leaving the country,” the senator said, adding that he would comply with the demand to surrender his passports but would challenge the decision. He described it as an attempt to intimidate him and pledged to continue his political activities. In addition, Bolsonaro reiterated his plans to seek the annulment of Lula's winning ticket, claiming irregularities in Sunday's voting. There is no confirmation of these claims in the available materials — these are the politician's own statements.