The Federal Court of Minas Gerais ordered, last Wednesday afternoon (10), the suspension of advisors and official cars granted to the former president (). The decision is preliminary (urgent and provisional) and can be appealed.
The court decision responded to the request of the councilor Pedro Rousseff (-MG), great-nephew of the former president (PT). He claimed in the lawsuit that, in the first half of this year alone, expenses with the former president’s team exceeded R$521,000. Since 2023, “total expenditures would already exceed R$4 million”, said Rousseff.
Official data from the Presidency of the Republic show that Bolsonaro cost the body R$994,592.11 from January to November this year. The bonus for commissioned employees alone was R$657,368.21. With air tickets, expenses totaled R$ 243,284.03.
Even in prison, Bolsonaro maintained the benefit paid by the government. As he is a former president, he is entitled to eight servers. There are six advisors for security and personal support and two official cars with a driver each.
The councilor asked that the benefit be suspended while Bolsonaro remains in prison. He received 27 years and three months in prison for five crimes in the coup plot. He has been detained at the Superintendency of , in , since last month.
With imprisonment, the benefit “loses its reason for being”, says the court decision. Substitute federal judge Pedro Pereira Pimenta, from the 8th Federal Civil Court, justified that the structure is made available “for a context of free movement in public space, not for the reality of custody in a closed regime”. He also highlighted that the State already provides equipment that guarantees Bolsonaro’s safety in prison.
UOL sought Bolsonaro’s defense and is awaiting a response.
“He also lost benefits when he was in prison. In 2018, the court also issued an injunction suspending Lula’s advisors, but the decision was overturned days later.”
“The official vehicles provided for in article 1, II, of Law 7,474/1986 also constitute an instrument of transportation for the former President of the Republic, in his own schedule of commitments in civil life, and not an autonomous benefit made available to civil servants or third parties”, says an excerpt from the decision by substitute federal judge Pedro Pereira Pimenta.
