By Luciana Magalhaes
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept 11 (Reuters) – Eduardo Bolsonaro, a son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, will renew his push for the United States to reinstate sanctions on Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes under the Global Magnitsky Act during a Washington visit next week, he told Reuters on Friday.
The move comes amid an unusually close election campaign for president in Brazil, where Eduardo’s brother Flavio Bolsonaro is statistically tied in run-off polls against incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Eduardo Bolsonaro has been actively promoting his brother’s campaign.
“The Magnitsky matter itself is something we have been working on for over a year now. So, it is not an election-related issue,” said Eduardo Bolsonaro, declining to disclose details of his agenda during the visit.
The younger Bolsonaro, a former Brazilian congressman, has led a campaign against the justice, pushing for him to face sanctions for his role in overseeing the trial that led to his father’s conviction and imprisonment for attempting a coup after losing his 2022 re-election bid.
The Global Magnitsky Act allows the U.S. to impose economic penalties against foreigners it considers to have a record of corruption or human rights abuses. In July of last year, U.S. President Donald Trump sanctioned Moraes, calling the trial against former President Jair Bolsonaro a “witch hunt.”
Moraes’ wife was later sanctioned, but in December the sanctions were lifted after a diplomatic push by Brazil’s government.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, living in the U.S. and convicted by Moraes in a separate case, now sees room for a reinstatement of the sanctions after an investigation raised suspicions that Moraes made improper contact with a banker who allegedly led a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme.
Moraes didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Luciana Magalhaes, writing by Fabio Teixeira; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
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