00:00A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has broken with his colleagues on the trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro voting to annul it, citing the court's lack of jurisdiction.
00:10The High Court still seems likely to convict Bolsonaro of plotting a coup to remain in power after he was voted out of office in 2022.
00:19Two judges already voted to convict, and the remaining two were appointed by leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
00:26Well, for more on this story, we can cross to France 24's Jan Onosko.
00:30Jan, tell us more about these latest developments.
00:35Well, as you say, today, a bit of divergence from the other judges by the current judge who is deliberating whether to convict Bolsonaro
00:45and seven other defendants on these charges relating to attempts to stage a coup d'etat after Bolsonaro lost the 2022 election to President Lula.
00:58Now, the case is being judged by the first chamber or panel of Brazil's Supreme Court.
01:03So those are five judges in total.
01:05And they need a simple majority, i.e. three votes, in order to convict Bolsonaro and the other defendants in this trial.
01:14So today we've been hearing from this third judge and all the signs are, as you say, that he's going to vote to throw out the case or vote against convicting these eight defendants.
01:23He's argued that this trial should have been heard by the full Supreme Court.
01:26In other words, all the 11 judges who make up Brazil's highest legal authority.
01:33And he's using this as an argument, as I say, to throw the case out.
01:37He's also agreed with some of the defense lawyers' arguments that the defendants weren't given enough time to defend themselves.
01:44And he's also said that planning to stage a coup d'etat doesn't mean the defendants constituted a criminal organization,
01:50because one of the charges against Bolsonaro is that he was the head of an armed criminal organization.
01:58Now, Bolsonaro's supporters consider him to be the most sympathetic judge towards the former president.
02:04And they were even hoping that he might ask for the papers to be called in so that he could analyze them further,
02:11which would have delayed sentencing and judgment in this trial by another 90 days.
02:16That's not likely to happen.
02:18And what will happen, though, what is likely to happen is that he will vote against conviction.
02:23And that will mean that as it stands at the moment, the tally will be two votes in favor of convicting Bolsonaro and one against.
02:31And, Jan, if you can, just remind us of what exactly is really at the heart of this trial.
02:36I mean, Bolsonaro considers it a witch hunt.
02:41Absolutely.
02:41What is at the heart of this trial is the is an alleged attempt for by Bolsonaro and his supporters, his allies for him to remain in power after he lost the 2022 election to President Lula.
02:58According to the main investigator in this case, Alexandre de Moraes, this had been planned and staged from at least a year or two before that,
03:10when Bolsonaro was beginning to question the veracity, the legitimacy of Brazil's electronic voting system.
03:18He also remained very silent after he lost the election.
03:21He then left the country as well.
03:23Well, documents have been found where there was an alleged attempt potentially to remain in power by him.
03:32So if Bolsonaro is found guilty on all five charges against him, he could be facing a prison sentence of up to 43 years.
03:41Now, at the moment, with this particular judge, Luis Fux, who will probably vote against convicting Bolsonaro, that's unlikely to save him.
03:49We still have two judges to vote and they are seen as likely to convict Bolsonaro.
03:56But it could leave the door open for him to potentially overturn this conviction in the future.
04:01And in fact, people are already talking about that.
04:03So, for example, the governor of Sao Paulo, TarcÃsio de Freitas, who's seen as the most likely candidate to represent the far right in next year's presidential elections in Brazil.
04:14He's already said that if he is elected as president, the first thing he will do is to pardon Bolsonaro and free him.
04:22And we've got to remember here that President Lula himself also spent almost two years in prison on convictions of corruption before he was released on a technicality.
04:35So it's possible the same might happen with Bolsonaro in the future.
04:39For the moment, though, a conviction is seen as likely.
04:42And if that is the case, Bolsonaro could be facing a lengthy prison sentence.
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