Former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro faced the start of a trial in Brazil’s electoral court on Thursday, in a case for “abuse of power” during his term that could disqualify him politically for eight years.

The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) convicts him of attacks on Brazil’s electronic voting system during a meeting with ambassadors in July 2022, three months before he was defeated in the polls by leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

After a three-hour session, the court, consisting of seven judges who must each cast their vote, He adjourned the trial until next Tuesday.

Bolsonarodefending his innocence traveled by his side to Porto Alegre (south) on Thursday, where he was received at the airport by dozens of supporters, some of them wearing Brazil’s colors, an AFP photographer confirmed.

In that city, he will meet with his Liberal Party (PL) and plans to hold a press conference during the day.

“Dreyfus Affair”

In his address to diplomats at the presidential residence of Alvorada, Bolsonaro He assured without evidence that he was trying to correct “flaws” in the current electronic ballot box system with the “participation of the armed forces”.

The former captain said the alleged vulnerability of the system could be used to manipulate the election results against him.

This argument later fed some of his radicalized followers, who On January 8, 2023, days after Lula’s inauguration, they raided the headquarters of the three powers in Brasilia.

The prosecution requested that the former president (2019-2022) be declared “unfit” for “misuse of political power and abuse of the media”.

The speech, according to the prosecution, “tried to give the false impression that the electoral process is shady” and favored “manipulations”, with the aim of “discrediting the election results”, judge Benedito Goncalves stressed when reading the report . .

For his part, Bolsonaro’s lawyer, Tarcisio Vieira, compared the case to that of the famous Captain Dreyfus, who was wrongly convicted in France in the late 19th century.

“It became one of the biggest judicial mistakes in history,” said the lawyer, asking not to repeat the same with Bolsonaro.

The former president confirmed on Wednesday that he had made “no criticism or attack on the electoral system”.

“I gave a presentation on how the elections worked in Brazil,” he said.

However, it is almost self-evident that Bolsonaro, 68, will be convicted, Two judicial sources told AFP they have been following the process.

If the votes are not completed by Tuesday, another plenary session is scheduled for June 29. Vieira expected that if convicted, the defense would appeal the verdict to the Federal Supreme Court.

He broke the press’s silence

On Wednesday, he said he “didn’t know” if he would run for public office again, though he made it clear that he intended to remain “active” in politics and “work together for Brazil’s future.”

Even if suspended, Bolsonaro could maintain a leading role on Brazil’s right, analysts say.

More lawsuits

The TSE’s will be the first of a series of decisions that could fall on the former president, who faces more than a dozen administrative processes in the electoral tribunal.

He is also the subject of five Federal Supreme Court investigations, with jail terms, including one for his alleged role as the mastermind behind the January 8 coup.