Brazil's top court denies Bolsonaro's request for passport return to travel to Israel
BY ELÉONORE HUGHES
Updated 7:01 PM CDT, March 29, 2024
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s Supreme Court denied a request by former president Jair Bolsonaro’s lawyers that his passport be returned to him so that he can travel to Israel, according to an official document released on Friday.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers said in a statement on Thursday that Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had invited Bolsonaro to an event in May, and requested the Supreme Court to restore his passport.
“It is absolutely premature to remove the restriction imposed on the investigated person,” Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes wrote in his decision, which was in line with a recommendation from the prosecutor general’s office cited by Moraes.
Bolsonaro’s passport was taken, precisely, to prevent him from leaving the country, given “the danger to the development of criminal investigations and the possible application of criminal law,” the prosecutor general’s office said earlier in its opinion.
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https://apnews.com/article/bolsonaro-passport-travel-israel-0433217b773de1f58ed49880a814628a
