STF Minister reinforces house arrest with magazines in vehicles and external surveillance to avoid risk of escape
Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Supreme Court (STF), decided on Saturday (30.2025) on Saturday (30) Do not authorize the entry of police inside the house of the former president (PL), who meets house arrest in Brasilia. The measure had been suggested by the PF (Federal Police) to reinforce surveillance, in the face of risk of escape, but was rejected by the magistrate. Read A (PDF – 168 KB).
Instead, the minister determined two external monitoring actions:
- surveys in all vehicles that leave the residenceincluding trunk check, with drivers and passengers. Reports must be sent daily to the Supreme Court; and
- face -to -face inspection outside the houseespecially in the back and sides of the property, where there is “Blind pointsThat hinder electronic anklet tracking.
The decision was made after demonstrations of the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) and Seape (Secretariat of Penitentiary Administration of the DF). Both pointed to difficulties in monitoring, ranging from technical failures from the electronic anklet to structural limitations of the residence, located in a gated community.
Seape stated that Bolsonaro “It has adjoining properties on both sides and backgrounds, which causes the existence of blind points” and warned that the equipment can be circumvented in situations such as subsoil stay, use of signal blockers or even the call “Envelope” with aluminum foil.
A, but recognized the need for reinforcement in the control of outside areas and the surroundings of the condominium. “I note that there is no critical security situation inside the house. Apparently, the concern would be girded with the control of the outside area to the house […] Certainly, however, that the expectation of privacy is considered also in these spaces ”wrote the Attorney.
The Federal Police, in turn, had argued that only the presence of agents inside the residence could eliminate the risks of escape, citing precedents such as the case of former Judge Nicolau dos Santos Neto.
In deciding, Moraes stated that house arrest is an intermediate measure, but still constitutes a restriction of freedom. According to the minister, without effective supervision, the measure loses usefulness. Therefore, it reinforced external monitoring, but preserved privacy of the former president and his family indoors.
“Although house arrest is an intermediate measure between the various precautions provided for in the legislation and pre -trial detention, it remains a kind of restriction on individual freedom, not losing the partial restriction characteristics of privacy and intimacy of the custodian, under penalty of its total uselessness.”he declared.
