He's always on the attack': the Brazilian judge prosecuting Bolsonaro inspires both love and hate

"Tattoo artist Bruno Ferreira has inked countless superheroes and superstars on to Brazilian bodies during his 25-year career: Wonder Woman, Batman, Ayrton Senna and Pele. But when Adauto Gomes Nascimento marched into his studio earlier this year, he had a different personality in mind: a muscular, shaven-headed supreme court judge called Alexandre de Moraes, who is now one of Brazil's biggest and most controversial celebrities."

"He means everything to me. He's someone who sticks up for Brazil He's a good person and a good judge, said Nascimento, a 37-year-old butcher from the Amazon city of Belem, explaining why he spent six hours and 3,000 reais (410, $550) to get Moraes's face immortalized on his shin. If tattooing a supreme court judge's face on to your leg seems a peculiar decision, Brazil's exceptional political landscape helps explain Nascimento's choice."

"Moraes is the judge presiding over the historic trial of Jair Bolsonaro, which began in the capital Brasilia last week. And Moraes's quest to hold Brazil's ex-president to account for allegedly engineering a coup after he lost the 2022 election to his arch-rival, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has made the pugnacious, muay thai-fighting magistrate a hero and even a sex symbol for progressives and a hated figure for Bolsonaro's devotees. Even Elon Musk, one of Bolsonaro's most famous foreign fans, has called the 56-year-old jurist an evil dictator cosplaying as a judge and Brazil's Darth Vader, and compared him to the Harry Potter villain Lord Voldemort. He intrigues and fascinates his detractors and his admirers in equal measure, said the journalist Thais Bilenky, who made a six-part podcast about Moraes called Alexandre. I don't think there's anyone who inspires so much love and so much hate, so much fear and so much admiration, as him."

Alexandre de Moraes has emerged as a highly polarizing national figure, admired by many progressives and fiercely opposed by Bolsonaro supporters. A 37-year-old butcher from Belém paid six hours and 3,000 reais to have Moraes's face tattooed on his shin, citing Moraes's defense of Brazil and his judicial character. Moraes presides over the historic trial of Jair Bolsonaro in Brasília, accused of attempting a coup after the 2022 election. High-profile critics have likened him to authoritarian villains, while supporters celebrate him as a combative, muay thai-practicing magistrate who inspires intense admiration and loathing.

Read at www.theguardian.com