Brazil court bars ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro from politics for eight years

Brazil's Superior Electoral Tribunal on Friday barred far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro from politics for eight years over his unfounded claims of security flaws in the country's voting system before his election loss last year.

The seven-judge tribunal ruled 5-2 that the 68-year-old Bolsonaro abused his office and state media in making the allegations. The decision means that Bolsonaro cannot run for the presidency in 2026, though his lawyers have said they will appeal.

Prosecutors have linked Bolsonaro's statements to his supporters invading the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court on January 8, a week after the inauguration of leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Lula had defeated Bolsonaro, 68, in elections last October.

The charges arise from a televised meeting Bolsonaro held with foreign diplomats from the presidential residence in July 2022, three months before his election defeat to Lula.

Bolsonaro spent nearly an hour making his argument to the assembled ambassadors, armed with a PowerPoint presentation but no hard evidence to back his claims that electronic voting machines in use since 1996 compromised election transparency.