Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued the warrant on Thursday, saying Eduardo Bolsonaro should start serving his sentence immediately. In his ruling, the justice wrote: "The defendant cannot benefit from his own wrongdoing by fleeing the national territory to an unknown location for the purpose of thwarting the application of criminal law."
Eduardo Bolsonaro, 42, was convicted in June on charges of lobbying the US to interfere in his father's trial. According to the conviction, he sought to impose sanctions on members of the Brazilian government and higher tariffs on Brazil's exports. He had pledged in March 2025 to move to the United States full time to "focus 100 percent" of his energy on freeing his father, a move that cost him his seat in the National Congress and his job as a federal police investigator. He now lives in Texas and holds a US green card.
The former lawmaker has been a key link between his brother and the Trump administration, accompanying Flavio Bolsonaro to a May meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House.
De Moraes chaired the investigation that led to Jair Bolsonaro being sentenced in September 2025 to 27 years in prison for plotting to stage a coup. The Bolsonaro family regards the justice as a political enemy.
The warrant is likely to heat up a hard-fought race. Both sides of Brazil's deeply polarised partisan divide have long accused each other of corruption and lawfare. The runoff takes place on October 25, with Flavio Bolsonaro the favourite to win.