A Brazilian Supreme Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit against former President Jair Bolsonaro over his two-day stay in the Hungarian embassy, saying there was no hard evidence he was trying to avoid prosecution, AFP reports.
Bolsonaro came under scrutiny when it emerged that he had stayed at the embassy in February, days after police confiscated his passport as part of an investigation into allegations that he was involved in an attempted coup to keep him in power despite losing the 2022 election.
"There is no concrete evidence that effectively shows that the accused intended to seek diplomatic asylum in order to flee the country and avoid criminal investigation," Judge Alexandre de Moraes wrote in his ruling on Wednesday. The former president and members of his inner circle face charges of conspiring to discredit Brazil's electoral system in the months around the October 2022 vote, which ended with Bolsonaro supporters storming institutions a week after leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sworn in. Police say Bolsonaro edited a draft decree that would have declared a state of emergency, called new elections and ordered the arrest of Moraes, who is the lead judge in multiple investigations targeting the former president. On 8 February, police raided Bolsonaro and his inner circle, arresting three people and confiscating the former president's passport.
In March, The New York Times revealed that Bolsonaro had stayed at the Hungarian embassy from 12 to 14 February, leading to a separate investigation into allegations of attempted flight from justice. Bolsonaro denies all charges and says he is the victim of political persecution. His lawyers said the embassy stay was linked to maintaining friendly ties with Hungary and his "good relations" with far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban. / BGNES
