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The majority on a Supreme Court panel in Brazil has voted to bring Eduardo Bolsonaro, the third child of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, to trial on charges of obstruction of justice.<\/p>\n
On Friday, three of the five justices on the panel accepted an indictment against the younger Bolsonaro, which accused him of using threats to interfere with a court case against his father.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n In September, Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court sentenced Jair Bolsonaro, who led Brazil from 2019 to 2023, to more than 27 years in prison for allegedly plotting to subvert his loss in the 2022 election by means of a coup.<\/p>\n Eduardo Bolsonaro has been among his father\u2019s most prominent defenders throughout his myriad legal woes.<\/p>\n An elected official in the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo travelled multiple times to the United States in the wake of Brazil\u2019s 2022 election, meeting with President Donald Trump and his Republican officials.<\/p>\n In March, Eduardo announced he would move to the US to petition full-time on behalf of his father.<\/p>\n \u201cI will focus 100 percent of my time on this single cause: to seek justice,\u201d he said in a social media video at the time.<\/p>\n But a majority of the justices on the Supreme Court panel determined that there was enough evidence to suggest Eduardo\u2019s actions in the US may have amounted to an illegal pressure campaign, designed to sway his father\u2019s court case.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is significant evidence that Eduardo Nantes Bolsonaro\u2019s actions aimed to create an environment of institutional and social instability, applying increasing sanctions to Brazilian authorities and causing economic harm to Brazil,\u201d one justice, Alexandre de Moraes, wrote in his opinion.<\/p>\n Two other justices, Flavio Dino and Cristiano Zanin, joined de Moraes in voting to proceed to trial, granting a prosecutorial request. Voting on the Supreme Court panel remains open until November 25.<\/p>\n At question is how Eduardo Bolsonaro may have lobbied the Trump administration to take action against Brazil, in order to drop the case against his father.<\/p>\n Jair Bolsonaro and Trump have been close allies, and Trump has shown a willingness to intervene in the politics of Latin American countries to support fellow right-wing leaders.<\/p>\n In Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s case, Trump issued a letter<\/a> in July accusing Brazil of censoring right-wing voices like the former president\u2019s. He also threatened to impose steep tariffs if the case against Bolsonaro continued.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace,\u201d Trump wrote in the letter, addressed to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.<\/p>\n \u201cThis trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!\u201d<\/p>\n An executive order<\/a> that same month declared Brazil\u2019s actions a \u201cnational emergency\u201d and an \u201cunusual and extraordinary threat\u201d against US interests.<\/p>\n By August, Trump had followed through with his economic threats, slapping Brazil with 50 percent tariffs on many of its exports to the US. It was the highest US tariff rate for any country in the world, matched only by India later that month.<\/p>\n The Trump administration also took specific action against Justice de Moraes, who spearheaded the investigation into former President Bolsonaro.<\/p>\n On July 18, the US Department of State announced it would strip visas<\/a> from de Moraes, his family and \u201chis allies on the court\u201d, though no additional justice was named directly.<\/p>\n Then, on July 30, the US sanctioned<\/a> de Moraes for \u201cengaging in a targeted and politically motivated effort designed to silence political critics\u201d. The sanctions came under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, ordinarily reserved for grave human rights abuses and corruption.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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