Rio de Janeiro — Brazil’s prosecutor-general on Tuesday formally charged former President Jair Bolsonaro with making an attempt a coup to remain in workplace after his 2022 election defeat, in a plot that included a plan to poison his successor and present President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and kill a Supreme Court docket choose.
Prosecutor-Basic Paulo Gonet alleges that Bolsonaro and 33 others participated in a plan to stay in energy. The alleged plot, he wrote, included a plan to poison Lula and shoot lifeless Supreme Court docket Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a foe of the previous president.
“The members of the felony group structured a plan on the presidential palace to assault establishments, aiming to carry down the system of the powers and the democratic order, which acquired the sinister identify of ‘Inexperienced and Yellow Dagger,'” Gonet wrote in a 272-page indictment. “The plan was conceived and brought to the information of the president, and he agreed to it.”
Bolsonaro is usually seen in Brazil’s yellow-and-green nationwide soccer jersey and the colours have turn into related together with his political motion.
Bolsonaro’s protection group mentioned it met the accusations with “dismay and indignation,” including in an announcement that the previous “President has by no means agreed to any motion geared toward deconstructing the democratic rule of regulation or the establishments that underpin it.”
Ton Molina / NurPhoto by way of Getty Photos
Bolsonaro’s son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who’s a senator, mentioned on the social platform X that the indictment was “empty” and there was no proof of wrongdoing. He accused the Prosecutor-Basic’s Workplace of serving “the nefarious pursuits of Lula.”
In November, Brazil’s Federal Police filed a 884-page report with Gonet detailing the scheme. They allege a scientific effort to sow mistrust within the electoral system, drafting a decree to offer authorized cowl for the plot, pressuring prime navy brass to go together with the plan and inciting a riot within the capital.
Within the indictment, Gonet described the alleged crimes as a part of a series of occasions articulated with an overarching goal of stopping Bolsonaro from leaving workplace, “opposite to the results of the favored will on the polls.”
The Supreme Court docket will analyze the costs and, if accepted, Bolsonaro will stand trial.
The far-right chief denies wrongdoing. “I’ve no considerations concerning the accusations, zero,” Bolsonaro instructed journalists earlier on Tuesday throughout a go to to the Senate in Brasilia.
“Have you ever seen the coup decree, by any probability? You have not. Neither have I,” he added.
In addition to taking part in a coup d’état, the 34 defendants are accused of taking part in an armed felony group, tried violent abolition of the democratic rule of regulation, harm certified by violence and critical menace in opposition to the state’s belongings, and deterioration of listed heritage, in response to an announcement from the Prosecutor Basic’s press workplace.
Gonet mentioned the felony group he charged “had as leaders the (then) president himself and his working mate, Gen. Braga Netto.”
“Each accepted, stimulated, and carried out acts which can be described in our felony laws as attacking the existence and the Independence of (the branches) of energy and of the democratic rule,” Gonet wrote in his report.
The crimes have various penalties. If Bolsonaro is convicted of making an attempt a coup and the violent abolition of the democratic rule of regulation, he could possibly be sentenced to as much as 20 years in jail, in response to the nation’s felony code.
The indictments, primarily based on manuscripts, digital information, spreadsheets, and message exchanges, expose a scheme to disrupt democratic order, in response to the prosecutor-general’s workplace.
The costs are “historic,” mentioned Luis Henrique Machado, a felony lawyer and professor on the IDP college in Brasilia, including that he expects the Supreme Court docket to just accept the costs and put Bolsonaro on trial someday earlier than the tip of subsequent yr.
“The costs present Brazil’s establishments are strong, impartial and agile,” Machado mentioned. “They’re a task mannequin for different nations the place democracy is in danger.”
Bolsonaro is barred from working within the 2026 election after judges with the nation’s prime electoral court docket dominated that he abused his energy and forged unfounded doubts on the nation’s digital voting system.
Following Tuesday’s fees, Bolsonaro will “place himself as a sufferer,” mentioned Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper College in Sao Paulo. Bolsonaro has beforehand mentioned his authorized woes are an try and cease him from returning to workplace.
“There are polls saying he can be aggressive within the 2026 elections in opposition to Lula, one in every of them revealed as we speak,” mentioned Melo. “There’s going to be political mud, however it can settle.”
