Brazil’s Supreme Court will weigh Tuesday whether to put far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro on trial for allegedly masterminding an attempted coup after losing elections in 2022.
If convicted, the 70-year-old risks a prison sentence of about 40 years.
According to the charge sheet, Bolsonaro led a “criminal organization” that had sought to unseat leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to whom he lost October 2022 elections by a razor-thin margin.
A week after Lula took office on January 1, 2023, thousands of Bolsonaro backers stormed the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court demanding the military oust the new president, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
Five judges – including Bolsonaro arch-rival Alexandre de Moraes – will now consider whether there is enough evidence to try the ex-president and seven alleged co-conspirators, including former ministers and a navy commander.
A decision is expected Tuesday or Wednesday, the court has said.
Bolsonaro was charged in February with crimes including the “attempted violent abolition of the democratic state of law” and membership of an “armed criminal organization.”
Dubbed the “Trump of the Tropics” after his political idol Donald Trump, Bolsonaro has been the target of multiple investigations since his turbulent years as president of Latin America’s biggest democracy from 2019 to 2022.
Content retrieved from: https://www.firstpost.com/world/brazils-supreme-court-to-decide-bolsonaros-fate-over-alleged-coup-plot-13874181.html.
