Brazil court bars Bolsonaro from public office
A Brazilian court on Friday barred far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro from holding public office for eight years over making unfounded claims against the country's voting system. Prosecutors blamed Bolsonaro's statements for a violent invasion of the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court in January by supporters angry about his electoral loss to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In a verdict that stretched over several days, five of the seven judges on Brazil's Superior Electoral Tribunal voted to censure Bolsonaro for alleged abuses of power, while two found in his favour. The tribunal tried Bolsonaro, 68, over a televised meeting he held with foreign diplomats in July 2022, three months before his election defeat to Lula. Bolsonaro spent nearly an hour making his argument to the assembled ambassadors, but presented no hard evidence to back his claims that electronic voting machines in use since 1996 compromised election transparency. The TSE ruling means Bolsonaro will be ineligible to stand in the presidential election in 2026, opening the contest for a new leader of Brazil's political right. Bolsonaro was not present for the ruling in Brasilia, traveling instead to Belo Horizonte in Brazil's southeast, where he was scheduled to have lunch with members of his Liberal Party. On Thursday, he insisted he was innocent, telling reporters: "Wanting to take away my political rights for abuse of political power is inexplicable." (AFP)