A Brazilian Supreme Court judge has barred Flávio Bolsonaro from leaving the country and ordered him to hand over every passport he holds, including the Italian one he was granted in 2023, a day after he lost the presidential run-off to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Supreme Federal Court judge Alexandre de Moraes gave the senator 24 hours to surrender the documents and ordered the cancellation of his Brazilian passports, among them the diplomatic one he carries as a member of the Senate. The ruling, which is under seal, also bars him from contacting the lawyer Willer Tomaz.
Both men are under investigation over suspected money laundering and illegal foreign exchange dealings routed through betting companies, according to Agência Brasil. The inquiry began in Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil, and was sent up to the Supreme Court because sitting senators can be tried only there.
The Italian document takes the order beyond Brazilian jurisdiction. Italy’s foreign ministry confirmed in 2025, answering a written question from an Italian deputy, that Flávio and Eduardo Bolsonaro completed the citizenship process in 2023 and their brother Carlos in 2024.
A passport issued by an EU member state can be withdrawn only by the issuing country. Compliance would therefore leave Brazilian police holding an Italian document that remains valid in law.
Federal Police officers stopped the senator in the street on October 26 as he left his father’s home in Brasília, he said in a video posted on social media. He said he had never considered leaving Brazil and would obey the order while contesting it.
He linked the decision to his brother Eduardo, who said on a podcast on October 23 that Flávio should leave the country if he lost.
Jair Bolsonaro is serving 27 years and three months for the attempted coup that followed his 2022 defeat, and is under house arrest in Brasília on health grounds. Moraes has overseen that case as well.
Lula took 51.79 per cent of the valid vote to Bolsonaro’s 48.21 per cent after a Supreme Court judge ordered polling stations to stay open for two extra hours, a decision Bolsonaro’s allies said had bypassed the electoral court. Bolsonaro has not conceded and has asked the Superior Electoral Court to annul the result.
Brazil is the largest economy in Mercosur, whose interim trade agreement with the European Union has applied provisionally since May 1, 2026. Senior EU figures had congratulated Lula on his fourth term hours before the Federal Police served the order on his opponent.
