Lawyers for Bolsonaro have petitioned for Trump adviser Darren Beattie to meet the ex-president in his prison in Brasilia.
Lawyers for former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro have asked the country’s Supreme Court to approve visits from Darren Beattie, a far-right adviser for the administration of United States President Donald Trump.
A court filing revealed on Tuesday showed that Bolsonaro’s lawyers were seeking to arrange a meeting with Beattie next week, either on March 16 or 17, during normal visiting hours.
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“Exceptional authorisation is requested so that the visit can take place on March 16, in the afternoon, or on March 17, in the morning or early afternoon,” the filing says.
The petition also requests that an interpreter be present for the meeting, given that Bolsonaro does not speak fluent English. The request was first reported by the Reuters news agency.
Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year prison sentence for attempting to overturn his defeat in Brazil’s 2022 presidential election.
The 70-year-old had been the incumbent in the race, and prosecutors accused him of plotting with military officials to overthrow the democratic rule of law, among other charges.
He was convicted last September and has been in prison since November, after his appeal was denied.
Tuesday’s request has raised eyebrows among Bolsonaro’s critics, who have accused the ex-president of using his ties to Trump to attempt to sway his legal proceedings.
Trump has previously railed against Bolsonaro’s legal prosecution, calling it a political witch-hunt and comparing it with his own legal woes in the US.
In August, Trump raised tariffs on certain Brazilian exports to 50 percent, citing Bolsonaro’s prosecution as a motive.
“This trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY,” he wrote in a letter announcing the tariffs, which were some of the highest in the world at the time.
But Trump has since enjoyed improving relations with Brazil’s leftist president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Bolsonaro’s rival in the 2022 race.
Brazil is slated to elect a new president in October, and Bolsonaro continues to be a powerful figure in the country’s right wing.
His eldest son, Flavio Bolsonaro, announced his candidacy – with his father’s support – in December, and is slated to face Lula, who is seeking a fourth term.
A Datafolha poll in March suggested that Flavio Bolsonaro is narrowing the gap with Lula, who is the race’s frontrunner. Forty-six percent of respondents backed Lula, and 43 percent supported the younger Bolsonaro.
Flavio Bolsonaro and his siblings have continued to petition for their father’s release.
Flavio, for instance, suggested that the “price” to rescind his candidacy would be his father’s freedom, though he later retracted the statement.
His brother Eduardo Bolsonaro, meanwhile, is facing trial on charges of obstruction of justice, with prosecutors citing his attempts to petition Trump for help in his father’s case.
Beattie, the Trump administration representative, has signalled he is sympathetic to the Bolsonaro family’s appeals.
An outspoken critic of the Brazilian government, Beattie has called Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes “the key architect of the censorship and persecution complex directed against Bolsonaro”.
He had served during Trump’s first term as an aide, but was fired in 2018 when reports surfaced that he had attended a white nationalist conference two years earlier.
