Brazil’s top prosecutor has urged the country’s Supreme Federal Court to find former conservative guilty of a coup attempt after the 2022 presidential elections.
Bolsonaro lost the presidency that year to leftist , also known as Lula.
What is Bolsonaro accused of?
In a 517-page document filed on Monday, Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet said 70-year-old Bolsonaro and seven others took part in an “armed criminal association” that attempted to “violently overthrow the democratic order.”
After the 2022 election, Bolsonaro never formally conceded to Lula and spread unfounded allegations of voter fraud.
“In exercising the highest office of the republic, he instrumentalized the state apparatus and deliberately carried out a sustained system of attacks on public institutions and the succession process,” the document said.
Could there have been a pro-Bolsonaro coup after the 2022 Brazil election?
On January 8, 2023, supporters of Bolsonaro stormed the country’s Supreme Court, National Congress Palace and Planalto Presidential Palace in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia.
The January 8 attacks came just days after Lula was inaugurated.
Lula was not in the capital’s presidential palace at the time, but rather in the countryside of the state of Sao Paulo. Bolsonaro, meanwhile, was staying in the southern US state of Florida after his election defeat.
Brazil’s federal police last year submitted evidence that tied Bolsonaro to a potential military takeover attempt after the 2022 election. Bolsonaro, a former army officer, has praised Brazil’s military dictatorship which lasted from 1964 to 1985.
The coup charges put forward by Paulo Gonet against Bolsonaro will now be weighed by Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Bolsonaro and his co-defendants could spend as many as 40 years behind bars if found guilty, with a ruling expected in September.
Bolsonaro says charges are ‘witch hunt’
Bolsonaro has rebuked the charges against him, labeling it a “witch hunt.”
“All accusations are false. I have never violated democracy or the constitution,” Bolsonaro said on social media platform X before Gonet released the document elaborating on the charges.
, who has also faced felony charges on overturning the 2020 US presidential election results, expressed sympathy for conservative ally Bolsonaro.
Trump said Tuesday that “Bolsonaro is not a dishonest man.”
The US president earlier threatened starting August 1 over Bolsonaro’s legal charges.
Trump’s tariffs threat has lead to a and alarm from Brazil’s business sector.
Edited by: John Silk
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