Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro said on Monday that the country's federal police had requested that he turn in his passports following a visit to his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, Reuters reported. The senator, who was defeated on Sunday by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the runoff vote, said he intended to comply with the request and denied he planned to flee the country after the election.

Source: Reuters

"I was ordered right on the street to hand over my passports, and I'm also prohibited from leaving the country," Bolsonaro said in a video posted on social media, Reuters reported.

Source: Reuters

A confidential court order, Agência Brasil reports

Brazil's public news agency Agência Brasil reported that Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued the confidential ruling, which also prohibits Bolsonaro from contacting lawyer Willer Tomaz, who is being investigated alongside the senator in a suspected money-laundering case, and cancels all his passports, including the diplomatic passport he holds as a senator, with 24 hours to surrender them. Reuters noted that Bolsonaro claimed, without providing evidence, that the police request was based on a Moraes ruling, and that Brazil's top court and federal police did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Source: Agência Brasil via E Daily Graph

Bolsonaro added that, in his account, the ruling was based on remarks from his younger brother Eduardo Bolsonaro, who said on a podcast last week that Flávio should leave the country if he lost the runoff election to Lula. "I never said that," Flávio Bolsonaro said, denying he intended to flee, Reuters reported.

Defeat he still refuses to accept

Lula won a historic fourth term in Sunday's election. The official tally released by the Superior Electoral Court showed Lula winning 51.79 per cent of valid votes against 48.21 per cent for Bolsonaro. The senator has refused to accept defeat and said he would ask for the result to be annulled, arguing that an extension of voting hours — introduced to address disruptions caused by public transport stoppages and heavy rain — gave Lula an advantage, Reuters and Agência Brasil reported.

What is solid

  • Federal police asked Flávio Bolsonaro to surrender his passports on Monday, and he said publicly he would comply (Reuters).
  • Lula won Sunday's runoff with 51.79% of valid votes to Bolsonaro's 48.21%, according to the Superior Electoral Court tally reported by Agência Brasil.

What is only claimed

  • Bolsonaro's claim that the order rests on a confidential Moraes ruling — the Supreme Court and federal police had not confirmed it when Reuters asked.
  • Whether the senator ever intended to leave Brazil — he denies it; the reported ruling is said to cite his brother Eduardo's podcast remarks.