The investigating judge of the process against Jair Bolsonaro found the former Brazilian president guilty of abuses of power in the 2022 elections and voted in favor of disqualifying him for eight years, in the second hearing of the trial held this Tuesday in the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE). .

Judge Benedito Gonçalves considered it proven that Bolsonaro used his then position as head of state “to degrade the electoral environment”, “incite a state of collective paranoia” and fabricate “conspiracy theories” with “false information” and “atrocious lies”. “. “It is not possible to close your eyes to the undemocratic effects of violent speeches and lies that jeopardize the credibility of the electoral Justice”, affirmed the investigating judge in the summary reading of his vote, of 382 pages in total.

With the first vote in favor of the disqualification of Bolsonarothe trial, which stems from a complaint from the Democratic Labor Party, was suspended and will resume on Thursday with the analysis of the other six magistrates that make up the electoral court and who will define the political future of the far-right leader.

The central point of the case is a meeting to which Bolsonaro summoned fifty foreign ambassadors at the official residence of the Presidency, on July 18, 2022, to seriously disqualify the electoral system and accuse the Justice of maneuvering in favor of the current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. That meeting, described today as “aberrant” by Gonçalves and in which the then president expressed unfounded suspicions about the electronic ballot boxes that Brazil has used without complaints of fraud since 1996, was broadcast on public television and the reserve captain’s social networks from army.

Bolsonaro would end up losing the October elections of that year by a narrow margin against Lula, who took office on January 1. However, Gonçalves opted for the acquittal of Bolsonaro’s running mate, General Walter Braga Netto, as “his responsibility had not been proven” in the case.

Bolsonaro “fully responsible”

In this context, he pointed to Bolsonaro, 68, as “totally responsible” for the act with the ambassadors, based on the testimonies collected in the investigation, including several of his closest ministers. In his opinion, Bolsonaro, based on “completely distorted” arguments, “dangerously flirted with the coup” and tried to “convince” the diplomatic representatives that “their account of him deserved more confidence than the official information from the TSE.” . “He tried to convince the international community that the elections were marked by systematic fraud and the corrupt performance of the TSE, exposing a false image of Brazilian democracy,” he sentenced.

In addition, interpreted the vision of the now former president on the role of the Armed Forces as “worrying negligence”, which he unsuccessfully sought to transform into active actors for the counting of the votes. AND knocked down the defense arguments of the far-right leader that they wanted to reduce the scope of the accusation, which maintains that Bolsonaro’s campaign against the electoral system was the beginning of a movement that led to the violent assault on the three powers of the Nation that occurred on January 8.

Within this framework, Gonçalves defended the incorporation into the process of the draft of a presidential decree found last January at the residence of former Justice Minister Anderson Torres to annul Lula’s victory and keep Bolsonaro in power through “military intervention.” “The events cannot be dissociated from the context in which they occurred,” said the judge, who also rejected that Bolsonaro’s attacks on the voting system fall within the right to freedom of expression. While the trial was taking place, Bolsonaro, who pleaded not guilty, puffed up on his Telegram channel about his management (2019-2022) in the face of “malicious narratives.”

The trial began on Thursday of last week with the reading of the case report and oral presentations by the prosecution, Bolsonaro’s defense and the Public Ministry, which also asked to condemn the former head of state and strip him of his political rights. If found guilty, Bolsonaro could lose his political rights for the next eight years, making him unable to run in the next presidential elections, in 2026.