Brazil: Attorney general's office seeks to sentence Jair Bolsonaro to prison for 'coup d'état'

Brazil's attorney general's office requested that Jair Bolsonaro and seven people from the former president's entourage be sentenced to prison for allegedly attempting to perpetrate a "coup d'état" and for "armed criminal association," among other crimes.

At the time, Bolsonaro denied such accusations, claiming he had no involvement in a coup attempt when he was questioned at the Supreme Court in June.

The petition was filed Tuesday before the Brazilian Supreme Court, motivated by the alleged actions Bolsonaro carried out to prevent his successor, socialist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, from acceding to power after the 2022 election.

"Having proven the participation of the people in the acts, the attorney general of the republic reinforced that they be sentenced for armed criminal organization, attempt to abolish the democratic state, coup d'état and other crimes related to damage to public property," said the attorney general's office, in statements reported by AFP.

It further added that Bolsonaro and the rest of the defendants tried to "guarantee the authoritarian permanence in power through attempts to violently disrupt the democratic order."

Eduardo Bolsonaro: "Who is interested in all this?"

The reactions did not take long to arrive. The first was that of his son and federal deputy for Sao Paulo, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who used X to downplay the importance of the request from the Brazilian attorney general's office.

"Attorney General Paulo Gonet Branco is asking for up to 43 years in prison for Jair Bolsonaro [for the crimes of] attempted coup d'état, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, armed criminal organization, aggravated damages and deterioration of catalogued patrimony. Who cares about all this?" Bolsonaro wrote.

The fate of the former president and his ex-collaborators is now in the hands of Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who could impose prison sentences of up to 40 years.