Brazil's top electoral court on Friday barred its former President Jair Bolsonaro from running for office for eight years, till 2030, for abusing official power.
According to reports, four of the seven judges at the country's top electoral court voted to banish Bolsonaro from contesting elections for eight years for abusing his powers and peddling “immoral” and “appalling lies” during last year’s election. Bolsonaro will now be able to contest again only in 2030, when he turns 75.
“The move to strip Bolsonaro of his political rights was based on his highly controversial decision to summon foreign ambassadors to his official residence last July, 11 weeks before the election’s first round,” The Guardian reported. During the meeting, Bolsonaro reportedly made baseless claims against the country's electronic voting system. A Supreme Court judge denounced his comments as politically-motivated disinformation.
The former army captain, who narrowly lost the elections to leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is charged with creating a nationwide movement to overturn the election result that culminated in the January 8 invasion of government buildings in Brasilia by thousands of his supporters, Reuters reported.
Benedito Goncalves, the lead justice in the case said Bolsonaro used his meeting with ambassadors to spread doubts and incite conspiracy theories.
