Brazil court forms majority to bar Jair Bolsonaro from office till 2030

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's political career evaporated on Friday as a majority of federal electoral court (TSE) justices voted to bar him from public office until 2030 for his conduct during last year's fraught election.

Four out of seven justices voted to convict Bolsonaro for abuse of power and misuse of the media last year, when he summoned ambassadors to vent unfounded claims about Brazil's electronic voting system.

Two more justices are still to vote. While those who previously voted could still change their minds, Bolsonaro's fate appears sealed.

A former army captain who narrowly lost October's election to leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Bolsonaro is accused of creating a nationwide movement to overturn the result, which culminated in the Jan. 8 invasion of government buildings in Brasilia by thousands of his supporters.

The lead justice in the case, Benedito Goncalves, voted earlier this week to make the former president ineligible for eight years, saying he had "used the meeting with ambassadors to spread doubts and incite conspiracy theories."

Bolsonaro denies any wrongdoing and has already said he plans to appeal to the Supreme Court.

"I have not attacked the voting system; I just showed its possible flaws," Bolsonaro said in an interview with the Itatiaia radio station on Friday, before the judgment. "This trial doesn't make any sense."

An avowed admirer of former US President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro was criticized internationally for his lackluster stewardship of the Amazon rainforest, his laissez-faire approach to Covid-19 restrictions, and his evidence-free attacks on Brazil's electoral system.

The TSE trial is part of a broader reckoning in Brazil with the fallout from the country's most painful election in a generation. While the former president faces electoral court scrutiny, many of his one-time allies are being questioned by lawmakers in a congressional probe into the Jan. 8 riots.

Bolsonaro does not risk jail in the electoral case, although the 68-year-old is separately facing multiple criminal investigations that could still put him behind bars.