Brazil's Attorney General's Office accuses former President Jair Bolsonaro of plotting a coup against socialist Lula Da Silva

Brazil's Attorney General's Office filed a formal indictment against Brazilian ex-president Jair Bolsonaro for planning a coup to illegitimately stay in power after being defeated in the 2022 presidential election against Socialist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In addition to accusing Bolsonaro, the attorney general, Paulo Gonet, also accused former minister Braga Netto and 32 other people of being involved in this alleged coup attempt. According to the indictment, the right-wing leader committed different crimes, such as damage and deterioration of property, attempt to abolish the rule of law, coup d'état and armed criminal organization. The First Chamber of the Federal Supreme Court will be the body in charge of evaluating Gonet's accusation.

The accusation occurred a few months after the Brazilian federal police submitted a report detailing the alleged coup plot by Bolsonaro and the other 33 defendants to the attorney general. In the report, the security agency explained that the alleged plan had different strategies for materializing. These included inciting riots in Brasília, pressuring the military high command to support the alleged coup attempt, creating a decree to provide a legal framework for the plot, and sowing the greatest possible distrust in the Brazilian electoral system among the population.

Alleged meetings with Armed Forces commanders

In its report, the federal police also explained that Bolsonaro had evaluated and requested numerous modifications to a bill that allegedly contemplated the arrest of the president of the Brazilian Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, and several judges of the Federal Supreme Court who were not identified. The report also detailed that the former president had met with several commanders of the Brazilian Armed Forces to study the use of specific legal tools to prevent Lula from assuming power.

Throughout these last months, Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied the accusations that he tried to execute a coup d'état to stay in power and reverse the results of the 2022 presidential elections, in which he was narrowly defeated by the former president and socialist leader. Bolsonaro even declared in the Senate, a few hours before the formal accusation by the Attorney General's Office, that he did not feel any concern about the possibility of being indicted.