The US Department of the Treasury on Wednesday announced sanctions on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over alleged suppression of freedom of expression and the ongoing trial of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.
De Moraes oversees the criminal case against Bolsonaro, who is accused of masterminding a plot to stay in power despite his 2022 election defeat to current Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
“De Moraes is responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights and politicized prosecutions — including against former president Jair Bolsonaro,” US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement.
Photo: AFP
The department cited the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which targets perpetrators of human rights abuse and corrupt officials, as its authority to issue the sanctions.
The decision orders the freezing of any assets or property De Moraes might have in the US.
The Brazilian Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Wednesday’s sanctions follow the US Department of State’s announcement on July 18 of visa restrictions on Brazilian judicial officials, including De Moraes.
They also came after US President Donald Trump on July 9 announced a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian imported goods. In a letter announcing the tariff, Trump explicitly linked the import tax to what he called the “witch hunt” trial of Bolsonaro under way in Brazil.
Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order to implement the 50 percent tariff.
Trump appears to identify with Bolsonaro, who is accused of trying to overturn the results of his 2022 loss to Lula. Similarly, Trump was indicted in 2023 on allegations that he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 US presidential election.
Flavia Loss, an international relations professor at Foundation School of Sociology and Politics in Sao Paulo, said the sanctions against De Moraes and the tariffs order marked an escalation in the tensions between the US and Brazil.
“We are not talking about a normal commercial dispute between countries, we are talking about using commercial tools to coerce what happens in Brazil,” Loss said.
Human Rights Watch in Brazil wrote on X that the sanctions “are a clear violation of judicial independence, a pillar of democracy.”
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