Brazil’s Bolsonaro asks Senate to impeach SC justice

BRASILIA: Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro raised the stakes in his battle with the country's Supreme Court late on Friday, sending the Senate a request for the impeachment of one of its justices, according to the request seen by media.

Bolsonaro is seeking to impeach Justice Alexandre de Moraes after he opened an investigation into the president for allegedly leaking to the media a secret federal police report of a hacking that backed up his views that Brazil's electronic voting system was vulnerable to fraud.

Moraes has also begun investigating Bolsonaro for his attacks on the Supreme Electoral Court, which has maintained that the electronic system is safe and can be audited.

Bolsonaro's critics say he is sowing doubts about the voting system so he can question next year's election results if he loses. Polls show former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead, though neither have announced they will run.

The president's request to the Senate, which is the only body that can try a top court judge, said some justices were committing abuses and breaking the law by launching investigations without the involvement of state prosecutors.

The Senate is not expected to take up the impeachment request, just as the lower chamber has not advanced any of the dozens of requests to impeach Bolsonaro.

But his case against Moraes will deepen the crisis between the president and the Supreme Court, which Bolsonaro supporters want to see closed down.

The far-right leader allegedly leaked a secret report by federal police pertaining to a hacking.

He then used this to back his claim that Brazil's voting system was vulnerable to fraud, according to investigators.

Moraes is also investigating Bolsonaro over his comments about the voting system on social media, which could be seen as making threats to democracy.

Critics of the president say that by sowing doubts about the voting system, he may be laying the groundwork to dismiss next year's presidential election results.

Former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is expected to challenge Bolsonaro for the presidency, and polls suggest that Lula would win in a runoff.