A majority of Brazil’s electoral court voted to bar Jair Bolsonaro from public office for eight years in the first major legal rebuke of the former president, whose efforts to sow doubt about the 2022 election have now put his political future at risk.
Four of the court’s seven judges said that the right-wing leader abused his presidential powers by calling a meeting of foreign ambassadors to make baseless claims about Brazil’s voting system months before last October’s election.
Judge Carmen Lucia delivered the fourth vote minutes after the trial resumed Friday afternoon.
The trial is still ongoing, and another justice could delay a final decision by weeks. But the 68-year-old Bolsonaro is on track to be ruled ineligible until 2030, an outcome that would prevent him from running in the next two presidential contests.
The likely verdict will amount to a reckoning for Bolsonaro and his brash style of politics. The conservative former army captain spent years spreading conspiracy theories about the election, igniting the fury of supporters who later stormed the capital, Brasilia, on Jan. 8 while claiming that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s victory was rife with fraud.
Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing, insisting that the July 2022 meeting of ambassadors was a matter of foreign policy that fell within the powers of the presidency. Like his close ally Donald Trump, who is facing two indictments and multiple open investigations in the U.S., he has alleged that he is the victim of political persecution.
“It’s an injustice for me, my God in heaven,” Bolsonaro told journalists in Brasilia Thursday morning. “They’re looking for a needle in a haystack. Where did I go wrong with a meeting with ambassadors?”
Read More: Bolsonaro Election Trial Puts His Political Future at Risk
Neither a lawyer representing Bolsonaro in the case nor his spokesperson immediately responded to requests for comment on the ruling.
Bolsonaro can appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, but his legal troubles are far from over. He is facing another 15 cases at the electoral court over accusations that he abused his authority as president and tried to undermine faith in Brazil’s electronic voting system.
Still, Bolsonaro remains a popular figure. His slim defeat in last year’s election — Bolsonaro won 49.1% of the vote — and the success of his party in congressional contests fueled expectations that he would lead opposition to Lula’s leftist government. His status as the country’s strongest conservative figure generated speculation that he would seek another office or a return to the presidency in the near future.
Bolsonaro instead had largely shunned public attention until he gave a series of interviews as the trial began. Even without the ability to run for office, experts expect him to maintain significant political influence over a movement that has no other clear leader.
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Outside of the electoral court, Bolsonaro is also facing investigations for potential crimes that occurred during and after his presidency. The alleged offenses include failing to declare millions of dollars worth of gifts he received while serving as president, falsifying Covid-19 vaccination records, and inciting the Jan. 8 riots.
