Former Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro is accused of plotting to overthrow the 2022 elections

The former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, is plotting to overthrow the country's government in 2022 along with a number of former ministers and top aides, state police said in a case filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday.

The latest police report wraps up a nearly two-year investigation into Bolsonaro's role in an anti-election movement that resulted in riots by his supporters that swept through Brasilia, the capital, in January 2023, just a week after his rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office. the office.

Many protesters at the time said they wanted to create chaos to justify a military coup, which they considered imminent. At the beginning of this week, the police arrested five people suspected of plotting to impeach Lula before he took office.

Investigators found evidence that Bolsonaro knew about the alleged plan, according to police sources familiar with the investigation.

Bolsonaro said on social media that investigators and the Supreme Court judge presiding over the case were “prudential” and did “everything the law says,” adding that he would have to pay close attention to the official police case. His lawyer told Reuters he would wait to see the report before commenting.

The official police charges against Bolsonaro are a new blow to his plan to run for president in 2026. The recent victory of the President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, has motivated Bolsonaro's allies to try to change the court decision that blocked him from the presidency for attacking the legitimacy of the party. 2022 vote.

A decision about potential costs

The Supreme Court said it expects to send the police report – the full details of which remain confidential – next week to the country's chief prosecutor, who will decide whether to indict Bolsonaro and 36 others accused of conspiring to violently overthrow a democratic government.

Federal police said they presented evidence based on search warrants, wiretaps, financial records and plea bargain evidence.

They said the conspirators divided their efforts between spreading misinformation about the election, encouraging the military to participate in the coup, and operational support for “coup actions,” as well as legal and intelligence support.

Among the suspects are two of Bolsonaro's former defense ministers, including his 2022 running mate, retired General Walter Braga Netto; his former national security adviser, retired general Augusto Heleno; former navy commander Almir Garnier Santos; and justice minister Anderson Torres.

Lawyer Alexandre Ramagem, who headed Brazil's spy agency, ABIN, and the head of Bolsonaro's far-right party, Valdemar Costa Neto, were also among the suspects named in the state police statement.

Attorneys for Heleno and Ramagem's aides declined to comment.

Legal defenders for Braga Netto and Torres said they would wait to receive the official police report before commenting.

Representatives for Garnier Santos, Brazil's Defense Ministry, and the navy did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The country's military said that it does not say anything about the ongoing plans of other agencies.

Representatives for Costa Neto also did not return calls for comment. But Rogerio Marinho, secretary-general of the Liberal Party, said in a statement that the police passing by Costa Neto and others represent “perpetual political persecution” against the political unit he represents.

5 arrested for conspiracy against Luna

On Tuesday, the police arrested five people suspected of involvement in the murder case against Lula, who was president at the time, and his colleague Geraldo Alckmin, days before they took office.

Lula, speaking at the presidential palace on Thursday, said he was lucky to be alive. “The attempts to poison me with Alckmin did not work and here we are,” he said.

On Tuesday, a deputy minister in Bolsonaro's cabinet was arrested who was in charge of a letter explaining the plan that was published in the presidential palace.

A police source said that investigators confirmed that Bolsonaro was in the presidential palace when the document was published, and they found evidence on cell phones of conversations between aides that showed that the former president was aware of the plot.

Bolsonaro never saw his defeat in the October 2022 election and left Brazil for Florida days before Lula's inauguration.

He eventually returned to Brazil and surrendered his passport to police investigating his role in the January 2023 riots in the capital, when supporters stormed and destroyed the Supreme Court, Congress and the presidential palace.

While ordering the confiscation of Bolsonaro's passport, the judge cited evidence that Bolsonaro in November 2022 saw and changed a draft declaration to annul the election results and impeach the Supreme Court justices and the leader of the Senate.

After making the announcement, Bolsonaro called military commanders and pressured them to support the coup, according to a police account, based on phone records and evidence of a plea deal from a former presidential aide.

Former army and air force commanders have also told investigators that Bolsonaro is involved in a democratic coup, according to evidence released by the Supreme Court in March.

Federal police have completed two separate criminal investigations into Bolsonaro and his associates earlier this year accusing them of tampering with COVID-19 vaccination cards while in office and misappropriating jewelry donated to them by the Saudi government.

Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing in both cases.

A person close to the Attorney General of Brazil, Paulo Gonet, said that he may consider the outcome of all three investigations against the former president before deciding to file charges, without any clear deadline.

Even as his legal troubles mount, Bolsonaro remains at the core of the right-wing movement that has driven Brazilian politics for the past six years. His party is the largest in the Congress National Assembly and made progress in last month's municipal elections.

Brazilian court cases can take years to reach a final judgment and even then they are subject to appeals and reversals.

Lula was convicted of bribery and spent more than a year and a half in prison before the Supreme Court overturned the case in 2021, allowing him to run for a third, non-consecutive term as president in 2022.