Bolsonaro appeals against conviction at TSE and talks about curtailing defense – 08/07/2023 – Power

The defense of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) appealed the decision of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) that left him ineligible for eight years. The appeal was presented to the TSE, this Monday (7), six days after the body published the judgment of the decision that condemned the former president.

Bolsonaro’s defense argues that he had the right to full defense curtailed with the denial of testimonial evidence.

Lawyers also contest the inclusion of the “draft of the coup” in the process, found in the house of Bolsonaro’s former Minister of Justice Anderson Torres. “It is undisputed that the extension of the cause of action, carried out with the inclusion of the apocryphal ‘document’ and the consequent consequences, wounds to death, in addition to numerous procedural guarantees”, says an excerpt from the piece.

The defense says that neither the Civil House, nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, nor the Secretariat of Legal Affairs of the Presidency were involved in the preparation of the meeting with the ambassadors, and that this demonstrates that there was no use of public machinery.

“It should be noted that, if the configuration of the abuse of political power, by definition, requires the representative to use the position held to influence the legitimacy of the elections, the non-direct involvement of bodies with greater thematic relevance to the event (Casa Civil, MRE and SAJ) is relevant for the purpose of evidencing the non-existence of the offense”, says the defense piece.

The appeal says that it is “imperial that the flaws pointed out be corrected, so that the collegiate, looking into the reasons for the defense, assesses whether the denials of evidence, with the premature closure of the instruction, resulted in an effective characterization of violation of the contradictory, ample defense and due process of law”.

The former president was convicted of abuse of political power and misuse of the media. The Electoral Justice understood that the conception and holding of the meeting with ambassadors, combined with the transmission by TV Brasil, potentiated “the effects of the massive misinformation regarding the elections”.

For the TSE, the disinformation strategy at the meeting was part of Bolsonaro’s campaign. The ministers (in a session that ended with a score of 5 votes for ineligibility and 2 against) ruled out the possibility that the former president did not know that the information he disclosed was false and stated that he used them as “engagement tools” in re-election attempt.

The TSE did not identify “attributable illicit conduct” linked to General Walter Braga Netto. As investigated in the process, the former vice-presidential candidate on Bolsonaro’s ticket was unanimously acquitted. In the opinion of the ministers, Braga Netto had no direct relationship with the event.

“The chair occupied by the first investigated person required him to ensure the free exercise of the competence of the Electoral Justice, the electoral legal interests inherent in the exercise of political rights and, also, internal security. But, in all evidence, he acted frontally against these duties”, said the judgment of the TSE.