Brazil’s Supreme Court justice panel has accepted allegations against former President Jair Bolsonaro, who allegedly tried to remain in office after his defeat in 2022 election, and they ordered former leaders to stand trial.
All five judges ruled Wednesday in favor of the charges filed by prosecutor Paulo Gonet. Last month, Gonet accused Bolsonaro and 33 people of attempting coups, including plans to poison his successor and current President Luiz Inácio Lulada Silva, and killing Supreme Court judges.
The former president repeatedly denied misconduct.
“The coup kills,” Judge Flavio Dino said during the vote. “It doesn’t matter what happens today, next month or a few years later.”
If convicted in a trial expected later this year, Bolsonrow could face a long-term extension of two decades of prison.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who oversees the case, sifted dramatic footage of Bolsonaro supporters in Wednesday’s opening speech, storming into the government building in violent scenes that unfolded just a week after the campaign for Lula lula Da Silva in January 2023.
Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro refused to accept the losses in his recent presidential election, attacking the government building in the country’s capital a week after Sunday, a week after Luiz Inacio Inacio Lula Da Silva’s inauguration.
Bolsonaro, a far-right former Army captain who served as Brazilian president from 2019 to 2022, has been charged with five crimes, including alleged attempts to violently abolish democratic rule of law and coup.
Moraes said Bolsonaro led “a systematic effort to doubt the electronic voting machine used by Brazil” as part of his destruction of the election he lost.
The Supreme Court began reviewing allegations against Bolsenalo and his closest allies at a meeting Tuesday, who volunteered to attend and sat silently in the first row during last year’s trial of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Bolsonaro called the beachfront rally in Rio de Janeiro, hoping to capture Lula’s popularity and pressure on the convention to pass an amnesty bill that favors him and his jailed supporters.
After two independent voting companies found that only 20,000 to 30,000 people appeared, some allies suggested demonstrations could attract more than one million supporters.
Bolsonaro insisted that despite the ruling of the Brazilian higher election court banning him from running for office until 2030, he was unable to run for office for discrediting the country’s voting system.
