Former Brazilian President Bolsonaro Faces Trial on Alleged Coup Plotting Charges

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is scheduled to face trial on charges of allegedly plotting a coup, following a vote by the majority of judges on Brazil’s Supreme Court on Wednesday. They supported moving forward with the trial regarding his alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government after losing the 2022 elections.

On Wednesday, the first three members of a five-judge panel voted to put Bolsonaro on trial concerning his election-denying movement that culminated in riots by Bolsonaro supporters in the capital in early 2023, a week after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office.

Earlier Charges

Bolsonaro and his allies had earlier been accused of a systematic effort to cast doubt on the electronic voting machines used in the 2022 elections which he lost, an action that was seen as bringing Brazil’s democratic process to disrepute.

In the aftermath of the riot in early 2023, a total of 34 people were charged in the plot, including several military officials, such as Bolsonaro’s former national security adviser, retired General Augusto Heleno, and former Navy Commander Almir Garnier Santos, with the coup attributed to a “criminal organization led by Jair Bolsonaro, based on an authoritarian project of power,”

Forthcoming Trial

Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain who served as Brazil’s president from 2019 to 2022, was accused of five crimes, including an alleged attempt to violently abolish the democratic rule of law and a coup d’etat. A trial on the charges is expected later this year, and if found guilty Bolsonaro could face a lengthy prison sentence stretching over two decades.

The anticipated trial further casts a doubt on Bolsonaro’s quest to return to power after Bolsonaro earlier insisted he will run for president again in 2026, despite a ruling by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court that barred him from running for public office until 2030 for his efforts to discredit the country’s voting system.