Category World News

The majority on a Supreme Court panel in Brazil has voted to bring Eduardo Bolsonaro, the third child of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, to trial on charges of obstruction of justice.

On Friday, three of the five justices on the panel accepted an indictment against the younger Bolsonaro, which accused him of using threats to interfere with a court case against his father.

In September, Brazil’s Supreme Court sentenced Jair Bolsonaro, who led Brazil from 2019 to 2023, to more than 27 years in prison for allegedly plotting to subvert his loss in the 2022 election by means of a coup.

Eduardo Bolsonaro has been among his father’s most prominent defenders throughout his myriad legal woes.

An elected official in the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo travelled multiple times to the United States in the wake of Brazil’s 2022 election, meeting with President Donald Trump and his Republican officials.

In March, Eduardo announced he would move to the US to petition full-time on behalf of his father.

“I will focus 100 percent of my time on this single cause: to seek justice,” he said in a social media video at the time.

But a majority of the justices on the Supreme Court panel determined that there was enough evidence to suggest Eduardo’s actions in the US may have amounted to an illegal pressure campaign, designed to sway his father’s court case.

“There is significant evidence that Eduardo Nantes Bolsonaro’s actions aimed to create an environment of institutional and social instability, applying increasing sanctions to Brazilian authorities and causing economic harm to Brazil,” one justice, Alexandre de Moraes, wrote in his opinion.

Two other justices, Flavio Dino and Cristiano Zanin, joined de Moraes in voting to proceed to trial, granting a prosecutorial request. Voting on the Supreme Court panel remains open until November 25.

Trump protests Bolsonaro case

At question is how Eduardo Bolsonaro may have lobbied the Trump administration to take action against Brazil, in order to drop the case against his father.

Jair Bolsonaro and Trump have been close allies, and Trump has shown a willingness to intervene in the politics of Latin American countries to support fellow right-wing leaders.

In Jair Bolsonaro’s case, Trump issued a letter in July accusing Brazil of censoring right-wing voices like the former president’s. He also threatened to impose steep tariffs if the case against Bolsonaro continued.

“The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace,” Trump wrote in the letter, addressed to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

“This trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!”

An executive order that same month declared Brazil’s actions a “national emergency” and an “unusual and extraordinary threat” against US interests.

By August, Trump had followed through with his economic threats, slapping Brazil with 50 percent tariffs on many of its exports to the US. It was the highest US tariff rate for any country in the world, matched only by India later that month.

The Trump administration also took specific action against Justice de Moraes, who spearheaded the investigation into former President Bolsonaro.

On July 18, the US Department of State announced it would strip visas from de Moraes, his family and “his allies on the court”, though no additional justice was named directly.

Then, on July 30, the US sanctioned de Moraes for “engaging in a targeted and politically motivated effort designed to silence political critics”. The sanctions came under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, ordinarily reserved for grave human rights abuses and corruption.

By September, the sanctions had been expanded to include de Moraes’s wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes.

Close ties to Trump White House

Eduardo Bolsonaro has been vocal in his support of Trump’s efforts on behalf of his father. He has also become a frequent presence at the White House and events themed to Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

At one event in March, Eduardo was seen conversing at the Trump Hotel with former White House adviser Steve Bannon, while sporting a green hat with a variation on Trump’s slogan: “Make Brazil Great Again.”

In August, he told BBC News in Washington, DC, that he supported Trump’s tariff campaign against Brazil.

“I admire President Trump. We’ve met several times in his first and second term,” he told the British broadcaster. “We fought first to sanction Alexandre de Moraes. But if President Trump starts with tariffs, I do believe that he is right and I do support him because of that.”

But on Friday, in a statement posted to social media, Eduardo Bolsonaro denounced the Supreme Court panel’s decision to bring him to trial in absentia, calling it a “WITCH HUNT”. He added that he had no control over the sanctions Trump applied, nor the tariffs.

“Tariffs and the application of the Magnitsky Act are neither at my disposal nor illegal,” Eduardo wrote. “It is clear that Moraes wants to convict me.”

He went on to argue that he believes de Moraes is attempting to use Brazil’s “clean record law” — a tool to prevent corruption in the government — to bar him from running for office in the future. “Can this be called democracy?” he asked.

If convicted on the obstruction charges, Eduardo Bolsonaro could face a fine and prison time of up to four years.

A resident of the Gaza Strip, who is one of 153 Palestinians that landed in South Africa without the correct paperwork this week, says the group did not know where they would end up when they left Israel.

Loay Abu Saif, who fled Gaza with his wife and children, told Al Jazeera on Friday that the journey out of the battered and besieged enclave was a “trip of suffering”.

“We were not too convinced that any group … would be able to make this kind of evacuation,” Abu Saif said from Johannesburg, a day after the chartered plane his group was on landed at the city’s OR Tambo International Airport.

“I can say I feel safe … which means a lot for Palestinians, especially for those in Gaza,” he added.

Details are slowly emerging of a controversial transit scheme run by a non-profit, through which activists say Israel is encouraging the displacement of Palestinians out of Gaza by helping them settle in other countries.

Based on Abu Saif’s testimony to Al Jazeera, the Israeli military appears to have facilitated his group’s transfer through an Israeli airport.

The flight carrying Abu Saif left Israel’s Ramon Airport and transited through Nairobi, Kenya, before landing in Johannesburg on Thursday morning, where authorities did not initially allow the passengers to disembark as the Palestinians did not have departure stamps from Israel on their documents.

All in all, the journey lasted more than 24 hours and involved a change of planes.

Abu Saif said his family left Gaza without knowing their final destination. They only learned they were bound for Johannesburg when boarding their connecting flight in Nairobi.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Amman, Jordan, on Friday, said Israel was yet to comment on the issue, but it was unlikely the Palestinians who left did so without “Israeli coordination”.

“Nobody can approach that imaginary yellow line [in Gaza] without being shot at. These people had to be bused through the yellow line, through the 53 percent of Gaza that the Israeli army still controls and is operating in out of Gaza, through Israel to the Ramon airport,” she reported.

Uncertainty loomed

According to Abu Saif, his wife registered the family with a nonprofit called Al-Majd Europe, with headquarters in Germany with an office in Jerusalem, according to their website.

The group advertised the registration form on social media, he revealed. On how he was selected, Abu Saif said the process appeared to focus on families with children and required a valid Palestinian travel document, along with security clearance from Israel.

“This is all what I know about the criteria,” he said.

When asked whether he knew in advance when they would leave Gaza, he said no timelines were given.

“They told us … we will inform you one day before – that’s what happened,” he said, adding that the organisation told them not to carry any personal bags or luggage except relevant documents.

In terms of cost, people were charged about $1,400-$2,000 per person for the trip, Abu Saif said. Parents also paid the same fee per child or baby they carried with them.

After they were selected to leave, Abu Saif and his family were taken by bus from the southern Gaza city of Rafah to the Karem Abu Salem crossing (called Kerem Shalom in Israel), along the border with Israel, where they underwent checks before being transferred onward towards Israel’s Ramon Airport.

He said their travel documents were not stamped by Israeli authorities, but he thought it was just a routine procedure since there were no Palestinian border officials in Gaza.

“We realised the problem … when we reached South Africa and they were asking us … ‘Where are you coming from?’” Abu Saif said.

Future plans

The group that organised the trip, Al-Majd Europe, said they would be able to help his family for a week or two, after which they would be on their own, Abu Saif said. Al-Majd did not respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment.

However, Abu Saif added that the evacuees had made their own plans going forward.

“They have their papers for Australia, Indonesia, or Malaysia. We can say that 30 percent of the total number of passengers left South Africa on the same day or within the first two days,” he said, while others may choose to stay for several reasons, including receiving treatment.

South African authorities reported that of the 153 Palestinians who landed on Thursday, 130 entered the country, while 23 transferred to other destinations.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola urged football fans to support an upcoming charity match featuring Palestine’s national team at Barcelona’s stadium, with the proceeds set to be donated to aid projects in Palestine.

The makeshift homes of displaced Palestinians in Gaza have been flooded by heavy rainfall, as millions prepare for winter in the enclave without adequate shelter or relief.