Brazil's Supreme Court lets Flávio Bolsonaro resume visits to his father under house arrest

Court grants visits

Brazil's Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has authorised Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the presidential candidate, to visit his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving 27 years and three months under house arrest. The decision, published on Monday, 12 October, accepts a request from the defence filed on 5 October. Visits may resume on the same schedule, under the same conditions and security measures as before. The 90-day suspension expired on Sunday, 11 October, and a Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) opinion cited in the decision found no reason to extend it.

In the decision, Moraes wrote that the suspension period had run its full course:

The sanctioning period of suspension of visits, due to non-compliance with a judicial condition set for serving the humanitarian house arrest, has ended, completing the 90 days set in the judicial decision.

The decision also states that no later event called for an extension.

Why the visits were halted

In July, Flávio read a letter from his father on social media, and the court treated this as a breach of the conditions attached to Jair Bolsonaro's house arrest. Moraes had ordered that house arrest on humanitarian grounds on 24 March 2026, and the order barred the former president from using social networks, directly or through third parties. The letter expressed Jair Bolsonaro's support for his son's presidential candidacy. Sources differ on the start of the suspension: the BBC dates it to 13 July, while Deutsche Welle gives 17 July.

Jair Bolsonaro was convicted in September 2025 of five crimes linked to a plan to stop Lula taking office after winning the 2022 election. He began serving his sentence on 22 November 2025 at the Federal Police in Brasília, was then moved to the Papudinha facility, also in Brasília, and later received house arrest on health grounds.

Conditions on the visits

The decision keeps the existing timetable, conditions and security measures for visits. It also keeps two limits in place: visits may not serve political or electoral purposes, and no statements or messages from the former president may be disseminated, including through third parties and by any means. A prosecutor's filing published on Tuesday, 6 October, found no evidence that the conditions had been broken. The BBC quoted the decision's wording that the visits cannot have a "political-electoral purpose".

Runoff campaign

Flávio Bolsonaro, the Partido Liberal (PL) candidate, finished first in the first round with 47% of the vote, against 45% for the incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The runoff is set for 25 October, two weeks after the court decision, and Frankfurter Allgemeine describes Flávio as the favourite going into it. Jair Bolsonaro has named his eldest son as his political heir, while the former president himself is barred from holding political office until 2030.

What comes next

Visits can restart on the restored schedule, and the ban on using them for campaigning remains in force for the runoff.