Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro accused the country’s supreme court of persecuting him on Saturday after his appeal against a travel ban was rejected.
Speaking at the airport in Brasilia, Bolsonaro, who had called on the Supreme Court to reconsider a previous decision barring him from traveling to the United States to attend the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, said he was facing “huge political persecution by one person.”
Bolsonaro’s lawyers had filed an appeal late on Thursday claiming the right-wing politician had fully complied with and respected the precautionary measures imposed on him by the Supreme Court, and also rejected any possibility of him fleeing.
But Justice Alexandre de Moraes hours later upheld an earlier ruling rejecting the former president’s request to have his passport returned, a document seen by Reuters showed.
Bolsonaro was at the airport to bid farewell to his wife Michelle who will attend Trump’s inauguration.
Bolsonaro, who has been barred from running for office until 2030 and faces criminal charges for allegedly plotting a coup after his 2022 election defeat, had his passport taken in February 2024 on the order of Brazil’s top court.
Bolsonaro, who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022 and has been called “Trump of the Tropics,” said on Saturday that he had been invited to Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.