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2023-06-27 12:11:11

The far-right is accused of “abuse of power and improper use of the media” for exposing his unfounded theory once morest the reliability of electronic ballot boxes to 40 ambassadors.

Hoy 09:08

The ex-president Jair Bolsonaro his political future is at stake as of this Tuesday, when the seven judges of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) of Brazil start voting in a trial that might end in your disqualification for the 2026 and 2030 elections.

The trial began last Thursday, with the interventions of the rapporteur of the case, the plaintiff, the defense of the former president and the prosecution electoral campaign, which has already declared itself in favor of the ex-president’s disqualification. And now the judges must cast their vote starting at 7:00 p.m. Brasiliain a day that is expected to be tense.

The process began with the lawsuit filed by the center-left Democratic Labor Party (PDT, for its acronym in Portuguese) following, in July 2022, three months before the presidential elections, Bolsonaro exposed in a meeting with 40 ambassadors, broadcast by the official media, his unfounded theory once morest the reliability of electronic ballot boxes.

That theory, which Bolsonaro repeated on multiple occasions over the years, would have motivated his radical supporters to claim fraud in the elections and that, a few days following the inauguration of Lulainvade and destroy the headquarters of the three powers in Brasilia.

“Abuse of power”

For these facts, the former president is also being prosecuted in the highest court. Specifically, they accuse him of “abuse of power and improper use of the media.” According to prosecutionthe meeting with ambassadors “was deformed into an instrument of electoral maneuver.”

The electoral law considers that the abuse of political power occurs when the defendant takes advantage of his position and uses public goods in order to influence the voter.

If it is disabled, Bolsonaro68, will not be able to participate in elections for eight years, a period that counts from the 2022 elections.

This is one of the 16 complaints that the former president has open before the electoral justice. But many in Brazil They take it for granted that the case that is resumed this Tuesday is the one that might do them the most damage and probably end in their political disqualification.

Pre-candidate in 2026

After an act of its formation, the liberal partyMonday in the Legislative Assembly of Sao Paulo, Bolsonaro He spoke regarding the trial: “Is it fair to revoke someone’s political rights for meeting with ambassadors? It is not fair to talk regarding attacking democracy,” he asserted.

And he continued: “We cannot passively accept Brazil that possible criticisms or suggestions to improve the electoral system are seen as an attack on democracy”.

Bolsonaro He also defended his experience as a candidate for the 2026 elections. “There is no one irreplaceable. I talked regarding it now with parliamentarians. What happens here is that there are people more competent than me, but they do not have the national knowledge that I have. I got, thank God, considerable charisma from the population.”

The ultra-rightist had already spoken out last Thursday before the trial began, when he stated that he had a very difficult time and that his probable disqualification would be “an affront.” The next day he also made it clear that he planned to run in the 2026 election.

“In 2026, if I am alive and eligible, and if this is the will of the people, I am going to run for that presidency once more,” he declared. “I think I can still contribute to my country in politics. I ask God that my political rights are not curtailed by the TSE. Of course I don’t want to lose them,” added the former president.

The trial is likely to span at least three sessions. There is also the possibility that one of the judges asks for more time to analyze the case and that it is interrupted indefinitely.

It will be necessary to see how his followers will react if Bolsonaro is disabled. Last Thursday, at the beginning of the trial, the authorities tightened the security measures at the headquarters of the TSEbut the day took place without incident, almost without Bolsonaro mobilization.

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#Electoral #court #Brazil #debate #disqualification #years #Bolsonaro

2023-06-27 13:36:18

After the armed uprising by the Wagner mercenary army, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin thanked the security forces for their efforts to protect Russia in another speech on Tuesday. Soldiers and employees of the secret services opposed the attempted revolt on June 24 and thus prevented a “civil war”. Putin also acknowledged that businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner army was fully funded by the Russian state.

“We financed this group completely,” Putin said on Tuesday, according to the Russian news agency Interfax, during a speech to uniformed officers on the Kremlin premises. Putin had described the Wagner people on Saturday as “traitors” in view of their uprising, which has since ended. According to Putin, the group received a total of 86.26 billion rubles (around 930 million euros) from the state budget from May 2022 to May 2023. Officially, the Wagner Army calls itself a private military company.

At the same time, Putin announced an investigation into the cash flows at the parent company of the Wagner army, Concord Holding. Because while the Wagner troupe was fully financed by the state, Concord also earned 80 billion rubles. “I hope nobody stole anything or, let’s say, stole a little bit,” said the Kremlin chief.

Putin also commented on the consequences that a successful uprising by the Wagner army might have had for the continuation of Russia’s war of aggression once morest Ukraine. According to the Kremlin chief, much that had been achieved in the “special military operation” would have been “lost” in that case.

The Wagner units of the mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin were one of the most powerful and brutal troops in the Russian war of aggression that had been going on for 16 months. In addition to many ex-prisoners, highly professional mercenaries with extensive combat experience are deployed in the private army.

Putin announced changes in the leadership of the Russian armed forces “in the near future”. The “backbone” of the armed forces leadership will in future be made up of people who have proven themselves in combat. This also includes the Air Force. The Kremlin chief did not comment on whether he is sticking with his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu.

Shoigu has been criticized for months for the failure of the aggressive war once morest Ukraine and also had nothing to counter the uprising of Prigozhin – one of his greatest adversaries.

Soldiers and employees of the secret services opposed the attempted revolt on June 24 and thus prevented a “civil war”. “You defended the constitutional order, the life, security and freedom of our citizens, saved our homeland from tremors, effectively prevented a civil war,” Putin said in the speech, which was shown on state television. “We knew we were going to win, the insurgents wouldn’t have taken Moscow,” he said.

In his outdoor speech to hundreds of different security services, Putin also recalled the pilots who were killed in their attacks on the Wagner column on Saturday. The members of the Defense Department, the National Guard, the FSB, the Interior Ministry and the Presidential Security Service commemorated the dead with Putin in a minute’s silence. Wagner troops had shot down several helicopters and an airplane on Saturday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov sees the power structure in Russia following the uprising of the Wagner mercenary units as not shaken. There is now a lot of “ultra-emotional hysteria” among experts and “pseudo-experts,” he said on Tuesday, according to Russian news agencies. That has “nothing to do with reality”. “These events have shown how consolidated the society around the president is,” Peskov claimed.

After the armed uprising of the mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner army, the criminal proceedings once morest him were dropped, as announced by the Kremlin. Peskov justified the impunity following President Putin announced on Saturday that the masterminds of the uprising would face “inevitable punishment”.

Putin “wanted to prevent the worst,” said Peskov. There was a “clear agreement” to avoid the worst scenario. Putin made “certain promises” and “guarantees” for this, which are now being implemented. According to Peskov, the head of the Kremlin wanted to meet with Russian journalists in the evening.

Prigozhin surprisingly stopped his march towards Moscow on Saturday following negotiations. According to his own statements, he wanted to prevent bloodshed among Russian soldiers and therefore turned back 200 kilometers from the Russian capital. He had also occupied the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and withdrew from there as well.

President Putin confirmed on Monday evening that his disgraced ex-confidant might find refuge with his fighters in Belarus. He called the renegade Wagner people “traitors”. It was initially unclear whether Prigozhin was already in Belarus. For the part of the Wagner squad loyal to Moscow, Putin offered to sign contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry.

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#Putin #Wagner #Group #fully #funded #state

2023-06-27 12:39:44

Sophie Le Tan case

“A criminal mastermind would not be in the box”

On Tuesday, the man suspected of murdering student Sophie Le Tan apologized. However, he maintains that he did not premeditate his act.

PostedJune 27, 2023, 2:39 PM

The accused has long denied the facts.

During three hours of interrogation Tuesday morning before the Colmar Assize Court, Jean-Marc R. tirelessly repeated the same elements of defense already hammered out during the investigation, acknowledging fatal blows to Sophie Le Tanbut rejecting any homicidal intent.

“I am well aware of the pain I have inflicted on the family, I know well that they will never be able to forgive me”. Even before the first question, the accused takes the floor, to express a form of compassion for the relatives of the student, who disappeared on September 7, 2018.

“I would love to go back. I have deep regrets, I can only ask forgiveness from the family, but I know that it is useless”, continues Jean-Marc R. who, for the occasion, left his usual gray T-shirt for a shirt.

Convicted of rape in 2003

On their benches, the civil parties, who came much more numerous than the previous days, showed no reaction. Then begins a real confrontation between the president of the court, Christine Schlumberger, and the man who is suspected of murder, tried as a criminal recidivism following a first sentence of 15 years in prison in 2003 for rape and sexual assault.

The magistrate resumes the thread of the judicial investigation, long of almost three years, concluded then reopened following confessions, and looks into the previous interrogations of the suspect. “You have been heard six times by the examining magistrate, in addition to the reconstitution”, points out the president. “There is no interrogation that is less than 26 pages.”

“Legal Answers”

She recalls the convoluted justifications of the accused to the “surgical” questions of the investigating judge, but also his sharp knowledge of the file and, sometimes, his “legal answers”, as when it comes to distinguishing an assassination intentional homicide or blows resulting in death without intention to give it.

“Yes, I did law”, explains the one who sometimes allows himself to correct the president on points of detail of the file. “Like what, it leads to everything,” coldly replies this one. She returns to the first versions delivered by the accused, who has long refuted any involvement, to the point of absurdity, despite the DNA evidence found on the saw used to dismember the body. “At the time I didn’t know what to say. It was stupid. I was in a system of denial”, explains Jean-Marc R., almost contrite.

But on the existence of an organized criminal project, anticipated, the accused is unstoppable. “You think that a serious renter gives bogus appointments, uses several lines (telephone), dates and different announcements”, is surprised Christine Schlumberger.

“You’re wasting your breath”

This game of questions and answers continues all morning, Jean-Marc R. always having a good reason to put forward. The sleeping pills he had? Prescribed by his doctor for his sleep disorders. Multiple phone lines? Easier than going to buy credit refills. Exchanges with potential tenants that are almost exclusively female? Female students are “more careful” than their male counterparts.

The accused even went so far as to attempt to turn to his advantage the elements of the investigation which made it possible to go back to him, to contest the premeditation: “If you want to assassinate someone, you do not use a telephone with which you call acquaintances, you do not post an ad on the internet”, he remarks. “You call me a criminal mastermind, but a criminal mastermind wouldn’t be in the box today.”

And the defense lawyer, Me Emmanuel Spano, to declare: “This is your last chance”. “Do you think you have said everything?”. “I said everything, down to the smallest detail,” his client assures him. “I don’t kill people for fun. I did not want to kill Sophie Le Tan, I did not premeditate anything in this direction.

(AFP)
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#Sophie #Tan #case #criminal #genius #box