More than 80 witnesses are expected to testify through video conferencing over the next two weeks.
The trial for former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has begun, and accusations of planning a coup, overturning the results of the October 2022 election to “criminal organisations” and being slightly defeated by current President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva.
The country’s Supreme Court has been hearing testimonies from high-ranking military and politicians from Monday over the next two weeks.
The 70-year-old far-right leader, a former army captain who ruled Brazil from 2019 to 2022, could face up to 40 years of prison if convicted.
Bolsonaro denied the allegations, claiming he was a victim of “political persecution.”
More than 80 witnesses will testify through video conferences, including General Marco Antonio Freire Gomez and Carlos de Almeida Baptista Jr., who served as commander of the Army and Air Force under Bolsonaro.
In an earlier statement to the federal police, both men said that Bolsonaro “supposed the hypothetical possibility” that it would negate the 2022 election and use legal measures to justify military intervention.
Prosecutors said the alleged conspiracy included plans to declare a state of emergency, hold a new election and assassinate President Lula.
The 900-page federal police report details a scheme that says prosecutors ultimately collapsed due to lack of support within the military.
The charges also cover the January 8, 2023 riots in Brasilia, where thousands of Bolsonaro supporters attacked the Congress, the Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace a week after Lula took office.
Bolsonaro, a close ally of President Donald Trump when they were both in power, was in the United States at the time, and prosecutors argue that he called the “last hope” of those seeking to overturn the election.
Seven of Bolsonaro’s former aides, including four former ministers, a former Navy commander and the head of the Brazilian intelligence agency during his presidency, have been on trial along with him.
This is the first time a Brazilian president has faced accusations of a coup since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985.
Bolsonaro, who has often praised the era, has already been banned from holding public office until 2030 after insisting on Brazil’s electronic voting system.
Despite the ban, Bolsonaro shows his desire to return to politics. But speaking to UOL last week, he likened the charges to a “telenovela scenario” and warned that the conviction would be “death penalty, political and physical.”
Bolsonaro was a Brazilian leader during the Covid-19 pandemic and was heavily criticized when his misinformation policy and spread had the highest overall death toll in Latin America, serving the country, second highest from the coronavirus, behind the US.
Earlier this month, he was recently discharged from the hospital after undergoing the latest abdominal surgery in a series of procedures resulting from a stinging attack in 2018.
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