Brazil: Electoral justice annuls one of three sentences against Jair Bolsonaro; former president remains disqualified from holding public office

A judge of the High Electoral Court (TSE) has annulled one of the three sentences against the former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonarodespite the ruling, Still no political qualification. Judge Raúl Araujo decided to annul the sentence imposed on the far-right leader in the field of electoral justice for improperly exploiting the commemorations of Brazil’s Independence Day on September 7, 2022.

No public jobs before 2030

The state-run Agencia Brasil stressed that Bolsonaro remains disqualified until 2030 based on two other convictions against him by the High Electoral Court. According to the outlet, Araujo observed that Bolsonaro was sentenced in advance by Judge Benedito Gonçalves, who used another case against the former president analyzed by the TSE plenary to justify the new sentence.

Araujo believes that this judicial approach, based on the facts clarified in the relevant actions, is not “correct” because it “faces extensive defense” once “the person under investigation has not been given the opportunity to defend himself.” BolsonaroHe governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022, when he lost re-election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He was convicted in two other similar cases by the Tokyo Stock Exchange last year..

The first sentence is from June 30, 2023when the full electoral tribunal voted five to two to sentence him to eight years of political disqualification. “Abuse of power” during the 2022 campaignwho launched a crusade against the legitimacy of the electoral process. Last October, Bolsonaro and Who was his vice president and ministerial candidate, reserve general during his administration? Walter Braga Netto Sentenced The Tokyo Stock Exchange has once again banned the company from trading for eight years. For use in the 2022 Independence Day elections.

Shortly after that trial, Judge Benedito Goncalves again convicted the two separately in another trial for the same incident, but that trial is being heard separately. Bolsonaro’s defense appealed that final sentence, which was dismissed last week due to a favorable opinion by Raúl Araujo.

Dissenting from Bolsonaro, Araújo bans political demonstrations at 2022 LollapaloozaAt the time, artists such as Pablo Vital made positive comments about Lula, which for the judges constituted electoral propaganda. A few days later, Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party withdrew its complaint and Araujo also rescinded his decision, according to the Globo news portal.

New gems that might get complicated

Bolsonaro, who calls himself a victim of “judicial persecution,” has several cases pending over his alleged involvement in a coup attempt to prevent Lula from taking office after the 2022 elections, as well as the misappropriation of jewelry and other luxurious official gifts that were supposed to belong to public collections.

precisely On Monday, Brazilian police discovered new jewelry that had been transferred during the Bolsonaro administration. The former president’s envoys allegedly tried to make irregular sales in the U.S. The discovery could complicate the legal situation for the far-right leader, who is under investigation for illegally misappropriating high-value gifts he received from abroad during his tenure that were supposed to be added to the state collection when he left office.

Federal police chief André Rodriguez told reporters that they discovered the new gem after a series of investigations in the United States with the support of FBI agents. “This discovery strengthens the investigations that have been ongoing since the seizure of a set of jewels worth a million dollars at Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos airport that were given to Bolsonaro and his wife Michelle by Saudi Arabia and that a government delegation tried to illegally bring into Brazil in 2021.”

authorities They are investigating whether Bolsonaro is guilty of corruption. They suspect the former president kept several of the lavish gifts and sold some of them to the United States through middlemen.although later some of his collaborators bought them back when the Brazilian government demanded their return. The far-right leader visited the US state of Florida in the first three months of 2023, a trip that began two days before the end of his term with the explicit intention of not handing over power to Lula, whose victory in the presidential elections in 2022 was never recognized.

This Tuesday, the Brazilian president urged young people not to give up politics and invited them to run for office in the future if they are not satisfied with their representatives. “Never, never, for God’s sake, never say that all politicians are thieves or that they don’t like politics,” Lula said at the award ceremony of the 18th Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad in Rio Janero. The president strongly opposed the “politics of denial” promoted mainly on social networks.