Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro Photo Credit: AP
Police have convicted former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and 36 others of allegedly attempting a coup to keep the right-wing leader in office after his defeat in the 2022 elections. Already banned from running again in 2026 for a separate case, he now faces prison time and his influence could be further diminished.
Brazil’s federal police said the findings sealed in Thursday’s indictment were being handed over to Brazil’s Supreme Court, which will send them to Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, who will decide whether to formally charge Bolsonaro and prosecute him. should be conducted, or the investigation should be cancelled.
Local media have reported that Gonet is already under pressure from his legal colleagues to pursue various investigations related to the former president. And politicians say that if Bolsonaro pursues a Supreme Court case, his allies and rivals will compete for influence with voters.
“Bolsonaro is no longer the only leader of the right. He is coming off a mayoral election in which most of his candidates lost. “All these investigations don’t help him at all,” said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at the University of Sao Paulo.
Melo said that “the governor of São Paulo, Tarcisio de Freitas, the radical candidate for São Paulo mayor Pablo Marquel, the governor of Goiás state, Ronaldo Caiado … are politicians who are in line to attract Bolsonaro voters. ”
Bolsonaro told the website Metropolis that he was waiting for his lawyer to review the indictment, reportedly about 700 pages long. But he said he would fight the case and dismissed the investigation as the result of “creativity.”
The former president has denied all claims that he tried to remain in office in 2022 following his close election defeat to leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Since then, Bolsonaro has faced several legal threats.
Police said in a brief statement that the Supreme Court had agreed to reveal the names of all 37 people convicted “to avoid the spread of false news.”
Dozens of former and current Bolsonaro allies were also convicted, including General Walter Braga Netto, his running mate in the 2022 campaign; former army commander General Paulo Sergio Nogueira de Oliveira; Valdemar Costa Neto, president of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party; and his experienced former advisor, General Augusto Heleno.
Other investigations include Bolsonaro’s alleged role in smuggling diamond jewelry into Brazil without properly declaring it and instructing a subordinate to falsify his and others’ COVID-19 vaccination status. Was applied. Bolsonaro has denied any involvement.
Another investigation found that he had abused his power to cast doubt on the country’s voting system, and judges barred him from running for re-election until 2030.
Still, he has insisted he will run in 2026, and despite his own looming legal threats, many around him were pleased by Donald Trump’s victory in the recent US election.
Creomar de Souza, a political analyst at Dharma Political Risk & Strategy, said the impeachment is “obviously bad” for Bolsonaro, but he added that the right-wing leader could still continue his bid to run for re-election sooner rather than later. Permission has been given in. He has been barred from participating in the 2026 elections.
“The idea of a fair legal course is contested in the political arena these days. It could give those targeted an opportunity to portray themselves as persecuted,” de Souza told the AP. “We cannot rule out that the tension from such indictments may be somewhat in Bolsonaro’s favor.”
The indictment on the alleged coup attempt means the investigation has gathered evidence of “a crime and its author,” said Eloisa Machado de Almeida, a law professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university in Sao Paulo. He said he believed there were sufficient legal grounds for the Prosecutor-General to file charges.
Bolsonaro’s allies in Congress are negotiating a bill to pardon individuals who attacked and rioted in Brazil’s capital on January 8, 2023, in a failed attempt to keep the former president in power. Analysts have speculated that lawmakers may want to expand the law to cover the former president himself.
However, efforts to push through a blanket amnesty bill could be “politically challenging” given recent attacks on the judiciary and details revealed in the investigation, Machado said.
On Tuesday, federal police arrested four military and one federal police officer accused of plotting to assassinate Lula and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes as a means of overthrowing the government after 2022 elections.
Last week, a person carried out a bomb attack in the capital Brasília. He attempted to enter the Supreme Court and threw explosives outside, resulting in his death.
published – November 22, 2024 11:50 am IST
