The minister, of the (Supreme Federal Court), granted, in one year, the equivalent of 3 in every 10 requests like the one made by the former president (), 71.
Survey prepared by Sheet identified 67 decisions in which Moraes denied or accepted requests for humanitarian house arrest since 2025. Of this universe, 20 authorized the granting of the benefit, including the last one on Tuesday (24) regarding the former president.
Although it is not the standard in the orders analyzed, there is a precedent for setting a specific deadline for the reanalysis of the benefit and the determination is not questioned by experts, who rule out the classification as “legally unfeasible”, in the words of one of them.
The search was carried out using a keyword search engine in the Supreme Court system. Decisions were manually removed that dealt with related topics, but that did not qualify as granting or denying humanitarian house arrest, such as authorization for departures, exams or visits from third parties.
The search considered decisions by Moraes handed down from March 24, 2025 to March 24, 2026 and only criminal execution processes, that is, serving a sentence, to avoid noise with requests for humanitarian house arrest to replace preventive detention.
There is no legal provision for this type of home detention. The legislation allows the possibility for pregnant women, people over 70 years of age, people with serious illnesses and convicts with a minor or disabled child, but only in the open regime phase. This is not the case with Bolsonaro.
Gustavo Badaró, professor of criminal procedural law at USP, says that this, in fact, is a jurisprudential creation. The court ended up establishing a more flexible interpretation in view of the precarious state of penitentiaries in Brazil.
“There are people who, due to the seriousness of the situation, being kept in a penitentiary would be incompatible with the conditions of the prison systems, especially because many [dessas unidades nem] they are not even able to provide health aid”, he says.
This is why, according to the decisions analyzed by the Sheetthere are two main criteria for granting the benefit: demonstrating a weakened health condition or one that requires continuous care and proving that adequate treatment cannot be offered in prison.
An example case is that of , minister of the (Institutional Security Office) in the Bolsonaro government. last December after the military was .
Medical reports diagnosed Heleno with mixed (and vascular) dementia of a progressive and irreversible nature. They also indicated that serving a sentence in a closed regime, without specialized treatment, could worsen the condition.
In the case of Bolsonaro, . Although the minister emphasizes in the decision that the former president had all the necessary support to guarantee his health in the unit known as Papudinha, the recent one that brought together everyone from deputies to members of the Supreme Court itself.
In 2023, a defendant from January 8, 46, died after a sudden illness at the Papuda Penitentiary Complex. The (Attorney General’s Office) had already expressed its support, but Moraes had not decided on provisional freedom.
Now, when analyzing the former president’s request, the minister considered that the bronchopneumonia, despite the stable general condition, gave the possibility of granting humanitarian house arrest, but temporary, with a period of 90 days for reanalysis.
Lawyer Pamela Torres Villar, a specialist in criminal law from the University of Coimbra, says that the decision was due to the understanding of the need for medical care that he might not have been able to obtain under the closed regime, despite the peculiar situation.
The , with bathroom, kitchen, laundry, bedroom, living room and outdoor area. Bolsonaro was entitled to five meals a day, sunbathing and physical exercise, as well as the right to medical care three times a day.
In theory, for her, the former president’s case would barely fit into the hypotheses of flexible measures. “He tried to remove the ankle bracelet with welding. This is not a common act. He was banned from using his cell phone and social media, and he failed to comply with this order.”
So, “the solution found by the minister, granting a temporary home for the purpose of restoring health, was intelligent”, says Villar. “He met the real demands of the case, without misrepresenting what the law determines.”
The fact that it is something temporary, in the defense of the former president and the senator (PL-RJ), his son, also does not worry professor Luísa Ferreira, from FGV Direito SP. “I don’t think it’s problematic or legally unfeasible.”
According to her, “it’s unusual.” In general, judges grant the benefit without this deadline, but this “is not, in itself, problematic” or “excentric”. If a person has an illness and goes to home care, “the idea is that, once cured, they will return to the prison system.”
This is not the first time that the minister has granted humanitarian house arrest with a specific deadline. According to the survey, last year, Moraes adopted this solution for Maria Irani Teixeira Bomfim, a convict from January 8th.
The benefit with a deadline was granted for post-operative purposes. The medical recommendation was that recovery take place in a clean and healthy place. The minister authorized the humanitarian aid for 60 days and then extended it in January. She remains under house arrest.
