Brazil's ex-President Bolsonaro charged in alleged coup plot
Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied breaking any laws, and calls allegations against him a witch hunt.
PHOTO: Reuters file
PUBLISHED ONFebruary 19, 2025 2:03 AM
SAO PAULO/BRASILIA - Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro was charged on Tuesday (Feb 18) over a plot to overturn his 2022 election loss, the office of the country's top prosecutor said on Tuesday, in the latest legal setback for the far-right leader.
Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet filed the charges against the former president and 33 other people, including a few of Bolsonaro's former ministers as well as a former navy chief, with Brazil's Supreme Court.
"The responsibility for acts harmful to the democratic order falls upon a criminal organisation led by Jair Messias Bolsonaro, based on an authoritarian project of power," according to the charging document, which used the ex-president's full name.
It is considered unlikely that Bolsonaro will be arrested before his trial unless Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing the case, deems him a flight risk.
The charges come just months after the federal police concluded a two-year investigation into Bolsonaro's role in the election-denying movement that culminated in the riots by his supporters that swept the capital, Brasilia, in January 2023, a week after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office.
The leftist Lula narrowly defeated Bolsonaro in the late 2022 presidential election.
Bolsonaro, a former army captain, has repeatedly denied breaking any laws, and calls allegations against him a witch hunt by his political opponents.
A lawyer representing the former president did not immediately responded to a request for comment.
The charges represent a fresh blow for Bolsonaro that further complicate his already narrow hopes of a political comeback.
Tuesday's indictment marks the first time the beleaguered right-wing populist has been charged with a crime, though he has faced several legal challenges to his conduct as president since he lost his bid for re-election.
Two previous court decisions have already blocked him from running for president in 2026.
Source: Reuters