Brazil’s Top Court Starts Bolsonaro’s Coup Trial
Brazil’s Supreme Court this week began hearing key witnesses in the prosecution of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, accused of plotting a coup to retain power after narrowly losing the election in 2022, France 24 reported.
Gen. Marco Antônio Freire Gomes, a former army commander under Bolsonaro, took the stand on Monday and said that he met with Bolsonaro between the victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his inauguration in early 2023 to discuss a “state of siege” as a possible way to overturn Bolsonaro’s election defeat, according to Agence France-Presse.
Another military official under Bolsonaro, Carlos de Almeida Baptista Júnior, told the court he also took part in meetings in which Bolsonaro discussed “the hypothetical possibility of using legal instruments” to overturn the election results and justify military intervention.
Both Gomes and Júnior said they refused to comply. Gomes said that he warned Bolsonaro of the judicial implications of declaring a state of siege and even threatened to have him arrested if he followed through with the plan.
More than 80 witnesses, including senior military officers, former government ministers, and officials from the police and intelligence services, are expected to testify in this preliminary trial phase, which is expected to continue for at least two weeks.
Bolsonaro, who joined the hearing wearing the yellow Brazilian football jersey in a symbol of solidarity with his right-wing voters, faces allegations of plotting to retain power despite his 2022 election loss, a plot that prosecutors say includes plotting to murder the current president and a supreme court justice, the BBC noted. If found guilty, he faces up to 40 years in jail and would also be banned from holding office.
Bolsonaro is already facing a ban from holding office until 2030 after alleging that the Brazilian electronic voting system is vulnerable to fraud. Despite the ban, he said he plans to run again in the 2026 presidential election.
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