Brazil's Bolsonaro requests court permission to accept Netanyahu's invite to Israel

BY GABRIELA SÁ PESSOA
Updated 12:44 PM CDT, March 28, 2024
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SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro has requested federal authorities return his passport and authorize travel to Israel so he can accept an event invitation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit in May, Bolsonaro’s lawyers said Thursday in a statement.

The attorneys submitted Bolsonaro’s request to the Supreme Court on Monday, the same day The New York Times published security camera footage revealing that the former president spent two nights at Hungary’s embassy in Brasilia. His stay, in February, came just days after Federal Police seized his passport during a raid related to an investigation into whether he and top aides plotted to ignore 2022 election results and stage an uprising to keep the defeated leader in power.

The revelation of his stay sparked widespread speculation he may have been attempting to evade arrest, as agents would not have jurisdiction to enter embassy grounds due to diplomatic conventions restricting access.

Bolsonaro’s lawyers denied that was his intent, saying in a separate statement it was “illogical” to think he was seeking asylum or avoiding authorities. The stay formed part of his political agenda with the Hungarian government, with whom he has “well-known alignment,” the statement said.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Israel’s Netanyahu, both leaders of a global far-right movement, are key international allies of Bolsonaro. By contrast, Netanyahu in particular has had frosty relations with Bolsonaro’s rival and successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

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