Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro will stand trial for allegedly conspiring to overthrow the government after he lost a 2022 election, the supreme court ruled on Wednesday, moving swiftly in a case that could reshape the political landscape.
A five-judge panel decided unanimously to put Mr Bolsonaro on trial. If found guilty in the court proceedings expected later this year, he could face a long prison sentence, isolating the far-right firebrand who has avoided naming a political heir.
In his opening remarks on Wednesday, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing the case, screened dramatic footage of Mr Bolsonaro’s supporters storming government buildings in violent scenes that unfolded just a week after the inauguration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in January 2023.
Mr Moraes cast that insurrection as the result of Mr Bolsonaro’s “systematic effort” to discredit the election he lost and then conspire to overturn using violence, with the help of senior military officers and cabinet members.
‘The scene was like the end of the world’: Thailand reels from earthquake
It took about 40 seconds for US immigration officers to lift the Turkish student off the streets of Boston
Trump proves topical at tropical gathering on Chinese island
Literary portrait of Spanish child murderer prompts freedom of speech debate
Mr Bolsonaro, a former army captain who served as Brazil’s president from 2019 to 2022, is accused of five crimes, including an attempt to violently abolish the democratic rule of law and a coup d’etat. He has denied any wrongdoing and denounced the case as politically motivated.
The supreme court began reviewing charges against Mr Bolsonaro and seven close allies in a Tuesday session he voluntarily attended, sitting silently in the first row in a scene reminiscent of US president Donald Trump’s trial last year.
In contrast with the tangle of criminal cases that had involved Mr Trump, Brazilian courts and investigators have moved swiftly against Mr Bolsonaro, threatening to end his political career and fracture the right-wing movement he built over the past decade.
Wednesday’s ruling, roughly a month after Brazil’s top prosecutor presented charges, reflected an extraordinary pace for a top court that often takes years to decide major cases. The speed reinforced views that the justices are keen to wrap up the trial before the 2026 presidential campaign gets under way.
Mr Bolsonaro has insisted he will run for president again next year, 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.
Ahead of the landmark court hearing, Mr Bolsonaro called a beachfront rally in Rio de Janeiro, hoping to seize on Mr Lula’s waning popularity and pressure Congress to pass an amnesty Bill favouring him and his jailed supporters.
The demonstration, which some allies suggested could draw more than a million backers, was widely considered a flop after two independent polling firms found that only between 20,000 and 30,000 people showed up.
Still, political analysts expect the trial to galvanise Mr Bolsonaro’s most avid supporters, who have been working to undermine the supreme court’s credibility in Brazil and abroad.
“There are two trials: the first against the accused and the second about the supreme court itself,” said Leonardo Barreto, a partner at Brasília-based consultancy Think Policy.
Mr Bolsonaro’s allies in Congress, where conservative lawmakers have voiced concerns about overreaching by the court, are unlikely to abandon him, Mr Barreto said, adding that “he has something all politicians value the most, which is votes.” – Reuters
