Rio de Janeiro.- Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the main opposition candidate in Brazil’s October presidential elections, described this Friday as a “great farce” the trial that concluded with the conviction for coup-mongering against his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), and said that, if elected, he will grant him amnesty.
“All of that was a great farce set up to remove Jair Bolsonaro from public life“, stated the candidate for the far-right Liberal Party (PL) in an interview with the Globo television network when asked if, in the event of winning the elections, he will respect democracy.
Bolsonaro was sentenced last September to 27 years in prison by the Supreme Court of Justice for having led a coup attempt against the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who defeated him in the 2022 presidential elections.
According to his son, the far-right leader in Brazil was “judged by his enemies” and that is why everyone knew he would be convicted even before the trial concluded.
The now candidate stated that the former president was convicted of crimes such as destruction of public property even though on January 8, 2023, when thousands of Bolsonaristas attacked the headquarters of the three branches of government, his father was in Miami, “thousands of kilometers from Brasilia”.
More Read
You can also read: Brazilian Justice resolves the obstacles that prevented the registration of Flávio Bolsonaro’s candidacy
Also, he asserted that the protesters who participated in the attacks were convicted of conspiracy to commit a crime, even though they did not know each other and none of them had weapons seized.
“Clearly, everything was a farce set up by magistrates who are declared enemies of Bolsonaro. The magistrates who convicted him arrived at the Supreme Court nominated by Lula. It was not a fair trial,” the senator stated.
He also added that with the Supreme Court acting politically, he considers himself the only one of the current presidential candidates who can restore legal certainty in Brazil and force the members of the Supreme Court to comply with the constitution.
“Today the persecutions continue. Even journalists are being persecuted and the confidentiality of their sources is not respected“, he stated, citing a recent Supreme Court ruling to identify the source of a news story about alleged abuses committed by a magistrate.
More Read
He also said that to make amends for everything that happened, he will promote an amnesty to benefit Jair Bolsonaro and those who were convicted of coup-mongering.
The senator, who polls point to as Lula’s main rival in the presidential election and who appears in some surveys technically tied with the progressive leader in a potential runoff, denied having made attacks against the Brazilian electoral system and the electronic voting machines.
Likewise, he stated that he never questioned Brazil’s electronic voting machines and admitted he was wrong when he claimed they were manufactured by a Venezuelan company.
“I never questioned the electoral process. I am going to respect the process and the rules. I am competing under those rules and I will accept the result,” he said.
When asked if he would accept the result in the event of a defeat, he ruled out that such a thing could happen and asserted that he will win the election without the need for a runoff.
