“Electoral court is not parliament”, says Bolsonaro’s lawyer

The judgment of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) that could make former President Jair Bolsonaro ineligible was suspended this Thursday morning (22) and will resume next Tuesday (27). Prosecution and defense attorneys have already made their oral arguments.

Tarcísio Vieira, lawyer for former president Jair Bolsonaro and the vice president of his presidential ticket in 2022, Braga Netto, highlighted that the TSE cannot be the stage for political discussions. In reference to the speech of the prosecuting attorney, who classified Bolsonaro supporters as “hordes” who oppose civilization, Vieira said that “bolsonarism is not on trial”.

“A bloody, imaginary dispute between civilization and barbarism is not being arbitrated. This is not on trial, because the Superior Electoral Court is a court, not a parliament, not an electoral college,” he said.

He also highlighted the importance of due process of law, and said that the current judgment does not serve “to put an electoral end to Bolsonaro, to Bolsonarism, or even to wipe a right-wing project for Brazil from the political map”.

Vieira stressed that, in law, it is necessary to deal objectively with the legal nature of things.” “A meeting with ambassadors is a meeting with ambassadors,” he said. If the president jumped the gun in terms of propaganda, let him be fined [artigo] 36. If the president misused a public building, let the fine in article 73 of the Elections Law apply,” he said.

Vieira closed his oral argument by asking that the trial not reproduce the Dreyfus Case, a historic event at the end of the 19th century in France, in which “another captain”, Alfred Dreyfus, was wrongfully convicted. “A case that, according to Rui Barbosa, was based on false documents, manipulation of evidence, revanchism and impartiality of the press” and that ended in “an individual revenge, a rancorous condemnation”, observed Vieira.