BRAZIL – Brazil’s Supreme Court on Thursday denied a request by former President Jair Bolsonaro to temporarily restore his passport so that he could attend the inauguration in Washington of US President-elect Donald Trump next week. Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who Bolsonaro frequently has called his personal foe, said in the ruling that Bolsonaro currently holds no position that would allow him to represent Brazil at the event and that the former president did not adequately prove to the court that he had been invited. Bolsonaro, under several wide-ranging investigations including over an alleged attempt to stay in office despite his electoral defeat, had his passport seized by federal police last February because he was considered a flight risk. He denies the allegations against him.

Bolsonaro requested permission to leave the country from January 17 to 22 to attend the inauguration ceremony on January 20 and a Hispanic inaugural ball. Bolsonaro, an outspoken admirer of Trump, said on his social media channels on January 8 that he was “very happy with this invitation.”

“I’ll be representing the conservative, the right-wing, the good, the Brazilian people there in the United States, God willing,” Bolsonaro said. When de Moraes asked Bolsonaro’s lawyers for evidence of his invitation on Saturday, they forwarded an invitation letter signed by inauguration committee co-chairs Steve Witkoff and Kelly Loeffler. Still, de Moraes argued that Bolsonaro had not adequately proven that he was invited to the inauguration. In the ruling, de Moraes followed the recommendation of Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, who said Wednesday that Bolsonaro’s private interest in the trip did not outweigh the public interest in prohibiting him from travelling abroad. Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will not attend Trump’s inauguration. (Jamaica-Gleaner)