Bolsonaro trial: Brazilian justice “will ignore” American sanctions

The judge of the Brazilian Supreme Court Alexander of Moraes, in charge of the trial of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro for attempted coup d’état, said on Friday that he was going to “ignore” the sanctions inflicted on him by the American authorities.

During a court of the court in Brasilia, the magistrate said that he was going to “ignore the sanctions which were imposed and continue to work”, adding that Brazilian justice was not going to “bend to threats”.

In a virulent speech broadcast live on the Brazilian news channels, the judge who became the bane of Camp Bolsonaro said that he was going to “ignore the sanctions that were imposed and continue to work”.

On Wednesday, the United States Treasury Department imposed new sanctions for him as part of the Magnistky law, usually used against foreign personalities in cases of human rights or corruption attacks. Donald Trump’s government accuses him of taking advantage of his position to “target political opponents, including ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, journalists, American social networks and other American and international companies.”

The sanctions notably lead to the freezing of possible assets detained in the United States by Judge Moraes, already recently deprived of visa in this country. He “has no property in the United States,” said AFP a source of the high jurisdiction. “The Supreme Court will be absolutely inflexible in the defense of national sovereignty and its commitment to democracy,” said judge Moraes.

Even more than the Trump government, he attacked those who, in Brazil, “acted with cowardice and treated in order to submit the Supreme Court to a foreign state”.

Without appointing it, the magistrate thus targeted in the first place Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the ex-president, who put his mandate as a deputy to practice an intense and efficient lobbying authorities against the American authorities against the Brazilian authorities, and in particular the magistracy in Washington. Alexandre de Moraes recently opened an investigation against Jair Bolsonaro and his son for alleged obstruction of the current trial against the former president.

As part of this survey, the former leader of the first economy in Latin America is forced to wear an electronic bracelet, in addition to the ban on using social networks and other measures.

In addition to the sanctions against the Moraes judge, the United States government has imposed 50% of customs surcharge on a good part of Brazilian exports to the United States, from August 6. Faced with pressures, the Lula government has also thundered against an attack on “sovereignty”. Seeing an “injustice” in the customs duties inflicted, despite many exemptions, he first put on negotiations with Washington to gain their case.

Judge Moraes argued on Friday that Eduardo Bolsonaro had “assumed having played the intermediaries with a foreign government for the taxation of economic measures against his own country (…), jeopardizing thousands of Brazilian jobs”. According to him, “stimulating an economic crisis” aims to “cause social instability allowing a new putschist attack”.

Alexandre de Moraes promised that this trial would be completed “this semester”, “without giving in to the threats, coming from here where moreover”.