The opinion of the Electoral Prosecutor’s Office is that the requests are unfounded, which reduces the possibility of new convictions; Braga Netto, also a defendant, has the most to lose
The same plenary of Superior Electoral Court (TSE) which he has become Jair Bolsonaro (PL), ineligible in June this year, returns to try the former president this Tuesday, 10, in three electoral judicial investigation actions for abuse of political power during the 2022 campaign. Walter Braga Netto (PL), Vice President, is also a defendant in these cases.
Two were proposed by the PDT and are signed by the lawyer Walber Agra, who went to the TSE stand to defend Bolsonaro’s ineligibility. These actions concern lives made by the former president on August 18 and September 21, 2022, on the grounds that he had used the structures of public power to ask for votes for himself and his supporters.
One of the politicians who was at Bolsonaro’s side at the time asking for votes for him in the election campaign is Romeo Zema (Novo), who, a year later, showed signs of wanting to distance himself from the former president. The investigations conducted by the Federal Police into the custody of Saudi jewels and vaccination card fraud, in addition to the ineligibility declared by the TSE, have reduced the loyalty of Bolsonaro’s supporters.
Benedetto Gonçalves, the inspector general of elections, is the speaker in the three cases going to trial this Tuesday. Bolsonaro will be judged by the same ministers who made him ineligible.
In Tuesday’s cases, the MPF is against Bolsonaro’s conviction
One factor that differentiates these three trials from what made Bolsonaro unfit is the understanding of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR). Being an arm of the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), even without being the author of the process, the Electoral Prosecutor’s Office manifests itself in electoral judicial investigation actions, expressing its opinion on the validity or unfoundation of the requests.
Despite being a demonstration, what the PGR says carries a lot of weight in the Court’s decision. In the three cases going to trial this Tuesday, the deputy election attorney general, Paolo Gustavo Gonet Branco, considered that the appeals were unfounded. In June he spoke out in favor of Bolsonaro’s ineligibility and stated, in the TSE plenary, that the former president had carried out a “smart attack” against democracy.
“Therefore, the very discussion about the possibility of implementation lives the palace loses interest, given the lack of evidence of the harmful repercussions of the fact on the legitimacy of the electoral process,” Gonet said in one of the PDT cases that will be tried this Tuesday.
Regarding meetings with governors and artists, the assistant prosecutor said that it was not possible to guarantee that “these demonstrations of support produced in public buildings” had a “substantial impact” on the validity of the elections.
According to the law, TSE ministers do not need to agree with the PGR and can still condemn Bolsonaro. Agra, the PDT’s lawyer, says the party will continue to fight to secure a conviction. “The evidence in the case is not individual, it’s systemic,” she told the Estadao.
Bolsonaro could be declared ineligible again
Judicial electoral investigation actions provide for three possible sanctions: ineligibility, revocation of the membership card and referral to criminal investigation. According to the electoral lawyer Izabelle Paes, partner of the firm Callado, Petrin, Paes and Cezar, impeachment is no longer possible, because the elections are already over and Bolsonaro has been defeated. Therefore, this punishment would have no effect.
Ineligibility is a possible horizon for both Bolsonaro and Braga Netto, but it will have different weights for both. If the TSE does not agree with the PGR and decides that it was an abuse of political power lives and with the support of governors and artists, Bolsonaro could be declared ineligible again.
However, ineligibility does not work like a criminal sanction, where one sentence is added to another and becomes increasingly longer. “There will be no penalty sum, each period of disqualification will run separately. In this case (of Bolsonaro), the period of disqualification will coincide”, explained Paes.
In the action adjudicated in June, Bolsonaro became ineligible for having attacked, without evidence, the Brazilian electoral system in a meeting held with ambassadors from around the world in July 2022. The eight years of ineligibility are counted from the first electoral round where the episode occurred.
Since the facts of the trial this Tuesday refer to the same electoral campaign, if Bolsonaro is convicted, the eight years of ineligibility will have the same duration. In other words, the former president will remain ineligible until 2030.
The main problem for the former president is that multiple ineligibility convictions undermine the possibility of his return to the polls through legal challenges. If he is convicted in the three cases on the agenda this Tuesday, he will have to try to overturn four ineligibility decisions. Federal Supreme Court (STF).
Braga Netto has more to lose
In the action that made Bolsonaro ineligible, in June this year, Vice President Braga Netto was acquitted. Therefore he is still in the electoral race and has presented himself as a pre-candidate for mayor of Rio de Janeiro in 2024.
So, if the TSE decides to condemn the two, Braga Netto is the one who has the most to lose. Bolsonaro is appealing his June conviction to the Supreme Court but, until further notice, faces eight years away from the polls. In that case, the electoral court found that the deputy had no participation in the acts interpreted as abuses of power.
Last Friday, the 6th, Bolsonaro publicly criticized the TSE during a program in Belo Horizonte. “I don’t know what will happen. The TSE is a very political and left-wing process that is taking place there. This is bad for democracy,” the former president told reporters.
Possibility of criminal investigation
Another possible punishment for the electoral judicial investigation action is for TSE ministers to send a copy of the process to the Public Prosecutor, indicating the possibility of initiating criminal proceedings.
The electoral court can punish only within the limits of electoral issues. Therefore no one can be arrested, for example, by order of the TSE. However, if, while evaluating the trial, the ministers understand that there is evidence of a crime, they could refer the case to the Prosecutor’s Office, requesting the opening of an investigation, a hypothesis that is not excluded in this Tuesday’s actions.
The final word on whether or not to open criminal proceedings lies with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which will collect evidence during the investigation. However, the indication that comes from a court has greater weight.
Source: Terra
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