Brazil’s federal police have formally accused former President Jair Bolsonaro and several of his former ministers of being involved in an attempted coup after the far-right leader lost an election in 2022.
Police said in a statement on Thursday that Bolsonaro and 36 other people had planned the “violent overthrow of the democratic state”.
Several ex-Bolsonaro administration officials were accused of involvement, including former Defence Minister Walter Braga Netto, ex-National Security Adviser Augusto Heleno, former Justice Minister Anderson Torres, and the head of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party, Valdemar Costa Neto.
The police findings were to be delivered to Brazil’s Supreme Court to be referred to Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, who will either agree with the charges and put the former president on trial or toss the investigation.
The case centres around an alleged conspiracy following Bolsonaro’s narrow defeat to his left-wing rival, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in the 2022 presidential election.
Shortly after Lula took office in January 2023, thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters — angered over the election results — stormed the presidential palace, Congress, and the Supreme Court in the capital, Brasilia.
Some protesters at the time said they wanted to create the conditions for a military coup, and there have long been questions about Bolsonaro’s involvement in instigating the riots.
The far-right former president has denied any wrongdoing.
Brazilian police have said that some of the accused planned to assassinate Lula before he took office.
Speaking to the Reuters news agency before Bolsonaro was formally accused of involvement in the coup attempt, one police source said that the former president was aware of the alleged plot.
Thursday’s police statement comes just days after five people were arrested for their suspected involvement in a plan to kill Lula and his vice president, Geraldo Alckmin.
Police said earlier this week that most of the men under investigation in the alleged plot are military personnel with special forces training, or close aides to Bolsonaro.
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