The former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro will be tried this Thursday for abuse of power, in the first of a series of trials planned against the far right that could range from disqualifying you to jailing you.
These are the cases of which Bolsonaro is the object.
Before electoral justice
The Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) will analyze on Thursday whether there was an abuse of political power and improper use of the media during a meeting that Bolsonaro held in Brasilia with ambassadors, on July 18, 2022.
That day, he exhibited a presentation with misinformation about electronic ballot boxes and suggested the participation of the Armed Forces to “fix bugs” of the voting system, less than three months before the presidential elections, in which he was defeated by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
A total of 16 cases are being processed before the TSE for which Bolsonaro can be declared “ineligible”.
This includes actions for verbal attacks on the electoral system or for the alleged use of public machinery for one’s own benefit during the elections.
If convicted, he could be banned from contesting elections for eight years, leaving him out of the 2026 presidential election.
before the supreme court
Bolsonaro faces five investigations in el Supreme Federal Court (STF), susceptible to prison sentences.
Four were opened during his presidency (2019-2022), while in the last one he is investigated as an alleged instigator of the assault on the headquarters of the three powers by their followers on January 8 in Brasilia.
In one case, Bolsonaro is accused of interfering with the police to protect family members suspected of corruption.
He is also being investigated, in another case different from that of the TSE, for disseminating misinformation about electronic ballot boxes.
The other two investigations are for having leaked confidential information from a police investigation into a cyber attack on the electoral court and for statements about the covid-19 pandemic, when he associated the vaccine with an alleged risk of contracting HIV.
Without special privileges after leaving the presidency, he must also respond to processes in the first instance.
Among them, he is pointed out by “subversion of order” for their participation in demonstrations with anti-democratic slogans on September 7, 2021.
If he were finally sentenced to the maximum sentences for these crimes, the former president would face almost 40 years in prison.
Jewelry and anticovid certificate
Bolsonaro is also the subject of an investigation by the Federal Police (PF) for various sets of jewelry given away by Saudi Arabia, some of which reportedly entered Brazil irregularly in 2019.
Jewelry implicated in the scandal includes a diamond necklace and earring set intended for former first lady Michelle, valued by press at $3.2 million.
This set was seized by customs when a ministerial delegation tried to bring them into Brazil in 2021.
The case can set up a crime of embezzlement (appropriation of public assets) or tax, for the entry of private assets without the proper declaration and payment of taxes.
Bolsonaro denied having committed any crime in his statement in April before the PF.
He also denied in May having participated in the alleged falsification of his vaccination certificate against covid-19, as well as that of other relatives.
As part of that investigation, the police raided the house of the former president, a skeptic of the covid who always claimed not to have been vaccinated.
Source: AFP
Source: Gestion
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