OAN Staff James Meyers
3:21 PM – Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will be forced to stand trial on charges related to an alleged plot to overturn the 2022 presidential election results, the South American country’s Supreme Court has determined.
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Bolsanoro and 34 other people were charged in February with five crimes, including attempting a coup d’état. The coup included a plan to potentially assassinate elected President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, his vice president and a minister of the Supreme Court. Bolsonaro has denied the claims.
On Wednesday, the court decided unanimously to accept the charges against the eight of the accused, including Bolsanoro, his vice presidential candidate, military and political leaders.
As the deciding votes were being cast on Wednesday, Bolsonaro posted a message on X, criticizing the judges for moving forward with the case so quickly.
“Everyone says that the process will be concluded by the end of 2025, even though there is no precedent for such speed in a case of this magnitude. And why? Because everyone knows that what is taking place is, in fact, a kind of legal attack on democracy: a political trial, conducted in a partial, biased and openly unfair manner by a completely compromised and suspicious rapporteur,” he said, referring to Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
The accusations also relate to an alleged plan to stage a pro-Bolsonaro coup in the months between the October 2022 election and the riots that broke out in Brasília on January 8, 2023, – one week after Lula’s inauguration.
“It was a veritable pitched battle … It was an extraordinarily violent attempted coup d’état,” the supreme court judge Alexandre de Moraes told the court.
Bolsonaro, who attended Tuesday’s court session, had told reporters prior that he expected justice in the case.
“I’m fine. We always expect justice. Nothing is substantiated in the accusations made in a biased manner by the Federal Police,” he said.
He also compared the case to a rigged soccer match, posting on X, “In my case, the referee whistles against the game before the game even starts… and it’s also the VAR (video assistant referee), the linesman, the coach and the opposing team’s top scorer; all in one person.”
If convicted, the former president could face up to 28 years in prison, according to CNN.
In 2023, Bolsonaro was banned from public office for eight years after a separate investigation into alleged abuse of power found him guilty of spreading misinformation about the integrity of Brazilian elections.
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