Crime & Justice

Brazil’s top electoral court schedules trial against Bolsonaro for June 22

Brasilia, June 5 (EFE).- Brazil’s top electoral court announced Monday that it has scheduled a trial against former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on charges of abuse of power and misuse of media for Jun. 22.

A conviction could disqualify the former president from running for office for 8 years.

The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) released the schedule of the case filed by the Democratic Labor Party (PDT) and backed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office against Bolsonaro and his vice presidential candidate, General Walter Braga Netto.

The charges include launching harsh attacks against the voting system in 2022 when he was president.

Following the complaint filed by the PDT, the Public Prosecutor’s Office came out in favor of disqualifying him from politics for 8 years.

According to investigating judge in the case, Benedito Gonçalves, Bolsonaro and Braga Netto are being accused of “abuse of power and improper use of the media.”

Discussions on the case may continue on Jun. 27 and 29, if required.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office says that there is evidence that the far-right leader sowed unfounded suspicions about the legitimacy of the voting machines that Brazil has used in its elections since 1996.

The case, one of several that Bolsonaro faces in the TSE, was presented by the PDT after a meeting held by the then-president with a group of 40 ambassadors at the presidential residence on July 18.

In his speech, Bolsonaro insisted that the 2018 elections, which he won in the runoff, “were not completely transparent” and also cited alleged irregularities that occurred in 2014, when then-President Dilma Rousseff was re-elected.

In addition to the cases he faces in the TSE, the former army captain, who returned from the United States at the end of March, is the subject of a dozen investigations in the ordinary courts and another five in the Supreme Court.

One of them investigates the assault by thousands of radical Bolsonaro supporters on top government buildings on Jan. 8, with the intention of forcing a coup against the current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. EFE

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