Jair Bolsonaro tries to shield himself from arrest of ex-minister

The Federal Police on Wednesday arrested Brazil’s former Education Minister Milton Ribeiro. He is suspected of corruption, malfeasance, and influence peddling. Throughout the day, police officers carried out search and seizure operations at his home and at the Education Ministry itself.

Relieved of his duties at the end of March amid suspicions over his role in a corruption scheme that involved handing control of educational development funds to two Evangelical preachers, Mr. Ribeiro — himself a Presbyterian pastor — is a close ally of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. 

Indeed, after Mr. Ribeiro was pushed out of the Education Ministry, Mr. Bolsonaro said he would “put his head [not just his neck] on the line” for his disgraced minister.

In an audio message leaked to the press in March, Mr. Ribeiro said he yielded control of funds to religious leaders upon instructions from the president himself. “I met with two preachers at the request of the president. That much is quite clear,” Mr. Ribeiro said days before resigning from his office.

Since then, the Federal Comptroller’s Office reportedly identified suspicious operations in Mr. Ribeiro’s accounts. 

This changed the course of the investigation into the alleged corruption within the Education Ministry, and direct links between the former minister and the supposedly corrupt preachers became a central line of investigation — leading to Mr. Ribeiro’s arrest this Wednesday.  

The Federal Police carried out what is known as a “preventive arrest,” an exceptional pre-trial arrest. It sets no time frame for a suspect to be released and, therefore, can only be used in cases of flight risk or to prevent suspects from tampering with evidence.

The scandal within the Education Ministry is a delicate issue for Mr. Bolsonaro, and the arrest of his former cabinet minister comes at the worst possible moment for his re-election campaign, as he struggles to gain any ground on frontrunner Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. 

Indeed,...