Sawt Falasteen - Bolsonaro faces political ban as Brazil trial opens

Bolsonaro, 68, was not in court as the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) opened his trial on charges he abused his office and misused state media when he convened foreign diplomats to warn of the alleged risk of large-scale fraud in the October elections, which he went on to lose to veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The proceedings in Brasilia began with Judge Benedito Goncalves reading a summary of the case against the former president, which was brought by the left-wing Democratic Labor Party (PDL).

The accusation against Bolsonaro is that the meeting with ambassadors "was aimed at undermining the credibility of the upcoming election result in the eyes of the international community, at a moment when (Bolsonaro's) adversary led in opinion polls," he said.

Lawyers on both sides then began presenting their arguments, after which the court's seven judges will deliver their rulings one by one.

At the July 2022 meeting, Bolsonaro spent nearly an hour making his argument to the assembled ambassadors, armed with a PowerPoint presentation but no hard evidence to back his claim that the electronic voting machines Brazil has used since 1996 compromised the "transparency" of the elections.

Prosecutors say the event violated electoral law, given that it was organized with state resources, held in the official presidential residence and broadcast live on public TV in the middle of the polarizing election campaign.

Insiders say Bolsonaro will almost certainly be convicted, taking him out of the next presidential elections, in 2026.

The ex-army captain reiterated Wednesday that he had done nothing wrong.

"There was no criticism or attack on the electoral system" at the meeting, he told journalists.

- Trump parallels -

Bolsonaro was following the trial from the southern city of Porto Alegre, where he was holding political meetings, his press office told AFP.

His Liberal Party (PL) posted a video on Twitter of the former president cracking jokes and taking pictures with the crew of his flight to Porto Alegre Thursday morning before takeoff.

The TSE's judges are unlikely to finish delivering their rulings Thursday, sources said. Further hearings have been scheduled for June 27 and 29 if necessary -- and the case could be extended longer.

Bolsonaro can appeal to the Supreme Court if convicted.

Bolsonaro trailed Lula throughout the 2022 race, though he lost the runoff by a narrow 1.8 percentage points in the end.

His allegations against the election system surged to the forefront again on January 8, when his supporters ran riot in the presidential palace, Supreme Court and Congress in Brasilia a week after Lula's inauguration, insisting the polls had been fraudulent and demanding the military intervene.

Both Bolsonaro's unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud and the attack on the capital drew widespread comparisons to his political role model Donald Trump and the latter's bid to hang onto power after his loss in the 2020 US presidential election.

- 'Large base' -

Bolsonaro, who spent three months in the US state of Florida after his election loss, has kept an uncharacteristically low profile since returning to Brazil in March to serve as honorary president of his party.

He faces a raft of other legal woes, from five Supreme Court investigations that could potentially send him to jail -- including over the January 8 attacks -- to police probes into allegations of a faked Covid-19 vaccination certificate and diamond jewelry snuck into the country from Saudi Arabia.

But the man dubbed the "Tropical Trump" remains a powerful force in Brazilian politics, where conservative parties hold a strong majority in Congress.

Bolsonaro "has a large base that is very much influenced by him," said political scientist Marco Antonio Teixeira, of the Getulio Vargas Foundation.

Even if convicted, "he'll act behind the scenes and use his vote-winning power and influence to help other candidates," he said.

R.Halabi--SF-PST