MEXICO CITY 

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said Thursday that former President Jair Bolsonaro was denied a request to attend Donald Trump's inauguration because he is facing an investigation for an attempted coup against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Prosecutors indicted Bolsonaro in November while restricting his international travel and they seized his passport as a preventive measure because of his alleged attempt to oust Lula through a military coup.

The court's decision stems from concerns that Bolsonaro may attempt to escape justice, given that, since he left office in 2023, the former president, who has faced multiple accusations of corruption and attempts to undermine democracy in Brazil, has encouraged others to evade justice by fleeing the country.

"The scenario that justified the imposition of a ban on leaving the country, with the surrender of passports, continues to indicate the possibility of an attempt by the accused, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, to evade the application of criminal law, in the same way that he has advocated for fleeing the country and seeking asylum abroad for several individuals who have been definitively convicted by the Full Federal Supreme Court in cases related to the present investigation and connected to the attempted coup and violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law," Moraes said in a statement.

Bolsonaro's defense claimed he was personally invited to attend Trump's swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20, thus requesting that prosecutors relinquish his passport and grant a five-day permission to travel to Washington for the ceremony.

Moraes doubted the validity of the invitation.