This Thursday, the Brazilian Federal Police formally accused former President Jair Bolsonaro, a retired far-right military officer, of attempting to carry out a coup d’état, as reported by the corporation in a statement. The ultra tried to ignore the result of the elections and prevent the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from returning to power. Along with the man, 36 other people are accused, including two reserve generals who were ministers of his Government. The police report has already been delivered to the Supreme Court. Bolsonaro is already subject to precautionary measures in this case. He is prohibited from traveling abroad and, therefore, his passport was withdrawn months ago. Bolsonaro has not made any statements following the formal accusation, but in the face of each previous accusation he has declared himself innocent and has insisted that he acted “always within the four lines of the Constitution.”
The police report that their indictment is based on evidence obtained in these two years through “police investigations, the lifting of secrecy on telematic and telephone communications, banking and tax information, award-winning collaborations [con delatores]searches, and seizures, other measures duly authorized by the Judiciary,” the note adds.
This formal accusation by the police must now be evaluated by the Supreme Court. Bolsonaro by the judges months ago to run in the elections until 2030. In that case, he was convicted of abuse of power, for taking advantage of the presidential position to systematically question the security of the voting system.
Investigators maintain that the coup was not carried out because the coup plotters did not obtain the support of the then commanders of the Army and Air Force, Generals Marco Antonio Freire Gomes and Carlos de Almeida Baptista. Both implicated the former president in the plot by appearing as witnesses in the case, as was learned in March.
Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters staged a coup attack in Brasilia on January 8, 2023, a week after Lula took office for a third non-consecutive term. Until now they have only been part of the material authors of that attack. The Supreme Court has imposed harsh sentences on more than 200 people, but none of those accused of instigating or financing the coup attempt has sat in the dock for the moment.
The formal accusation comes after the police revealed this week that, as part of the plot, the coup plotters planned to kill Lula when he was president-elect, his vice president, Geraldo Alckmin, and Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes. Furthermore, last week a Bolsonaro sympathizer exploded in front of the highest court building.
Bolsonaro’s personal secretary, the soldier who carried his cell phone while he was president and accompanied him at all events, Mauro Cid, is a key piece of the police investigation against the previous president and the rest of the suspects of participating in the plot. coup plotter After a few months in preventive detention in a military prison, he agreed to collaborate with the police and detail the coup attempt.
(Information in development).
