Brasilia: Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is badly trapped. The court has banned him from contesting elections for 8 years. Actually, Bolsonaro was continuously attacking the country’s voting system. According to CNN, Bolsonaro was found guilty of abusing his power and abusing the public media during last year’s election campaign. Bolsonaro was found guilty by five judges out of a seven-judge bench in the court, the remaining two voted in his favor.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who presides over the court, was the last to cast his vote. “Let us reaffirm our faith in our democracy and the rule of law,” he said after voting in favor of the verdict. The judge said that with the vote, the Brazilian authorities would show that they do not tolerate “criminal extremism that attacks the powers of the state, fake news, disinformation to deceive voters”.
According to CNN, the case stems from Bolsonaro’s meeting with foreign ambassadors in July 2022, in which he spread misinformation about Brazil’s electoral system and called its credibility into question ahead of last year’s volatile election. The meeting was live-streamed on official television channels and YouTube. YouTube removed the live stream of the event under its Fake News policy.
Bolsonaro has denied all these allegations. Speaking to Brazilian radio station Itatia on Friday, Bolsonaro said he planned to appeal against the court’s decision. Bolsonaro lost the election to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva by the narrowest margin in decades. Pro-Bolsonaro protesters vandalized government buildings in Brasilia in riots on 8 January following weeks of demonstrations over the election results.
