ISTANBUL 

Brazil’s federal police have submitted court documents alleging that messages retrieved from former President Jair Bolsonaro’s cellphone indicated he once considered fleeing to Argentina to seek political asylum from Argentinian President Javier Milei.

The far-right former leader faces a possible prison sentence of more than 40 years as Brazil’s Supreme Court prepares to rule next month on charges that he conspired to overturn the 2022 presidential election, which he lost to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro denies any wrongdoing, but several legal and political analysts argue that the strength of the evidence makes his conviction and a lengthy prison term highly likely.

On Wednesday, federal police submitted a 170-page report to the Supreme Court saying they had discovered a document on the former president’s phone from February 2024, just two days after his passport was confiscated as part of the coup probe. According to the report reviewed by The Guardian, the document suggested Bolsonaro was preparing to request political asylum in Argentina.

“In my country of origin, I am being persecuted for essentially political reasons and crimes,” Bolsonaro’s purported draft asylum plea states, portraying the ex-president as “a politically persecuted person.”

The undated, unsigned document referred to Milei as “the most excellent president of Argentina Javier Gerardo Milei.” It asserted that Bolsonaro was “facing imminent arrest,” which the letter called “unjust, illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional.”

Bolsonaro, who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022, has said he intends to challenge Lula in next year’s election, despite a Supreme Court ban for spreading disinformation. Now under house arrest in Brasilia for violating a social media order, police told the court the draft asylum letter showed he had “planned to flee the country, in order to prevent the law being enforced.”

Investigators also accused Bolsonaro and his son, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, of attempting to influence the upcoming trial by urging US officials to pressure Brazil’s Supreme Court. The judgment is scheduled for Sept. 2–12.

US President Donald Trump told reporters last week: “It’s really a political execution that they’re trying to do with Bolsonaro. I think that’s terrible.”

In July, Trump imposed 50% tariffs on Brazilian imports and sanctioned Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing the case, calling it a “witch hunt.”