Bolsonaro found guilty in attempted coup, assassination plot

BRASÍLIA - Brazil’s Supreme Court has found former president Jair Bolsonaro guilty of attempting a military coup to stay in power after his 2022 election loss, a plot that included plans to assassinate President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the man who defeated him, in a case that has roiled this young democracy and strained its relations with President Donald Trump.

Bolsonaro is the first former president found guilty of trying to undermine Latin America’s largest democracy. Advocates for accountability hoped the verdict would prove a turning point for a nation that has suffered more than a dozen coup attempts but historically has opted for political conciliation rather than prosecution. Trump, a Bolsonaro ally and friend, had imposed tariffs on Brazilian imports and sanctions on Supreme Court justices to pressure them to drop the case.

Justice Cármen Lúcia cast the third and deciding vote Thursday to convict Bolsonaro of attempting a coup and four related charges.

Bolsonaro, 70, has denied wrongdoing. The right-wing populist did not attend the proceeding, which began last week in a building his supporters ransacked after his loss. In court, his attorney said there was no concrete evidence to link him to the plot to overturn the narrowest presidential election loss in Brazil’s four decades of democracy. He is expected to appeal.

Sentencing is expected this week. He faces up to 40 years in prison.

“The government wanted to remain in power by simply ignoring democracy - and that is what constitutes a coup d’état,” Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who was also named as a potential assassination target, said Tuesday from the bench. “The leader of the criminal group made it clear - publicly and in his own words - that he would never accept defeat at the ballot, a democratic loss in the elections, and that he would never abide by the will of the people.”

Seven co-defendants, including an admiral and three generals, were also found guilty.

Bolsonaro has been under house arrest since early August for allegedly violating court orders to refrain from making public comments to intimidate or pressure public officials into canceling his trial. If sentenced to prison, he would not be required to report until he had exhausted his appeals.

One justice, Luiz Fux, asked Wednesday that the case be annulled for lack of jurisdiction. Because the defendants have left office, he argued, they no longer qualify for the special status that allowed them to be tried by the nation’s highest tribunal. The request did not have an immediate effect, but it could aid Bolsonaro in an appeal. Fux is the only justice so far to acquit Bolsonaro of the charges.

The five justices on the panel deciding the case have been explaining their interpretations and announcing their votes one by one - a process that has taken days. Fux alone spoke for more than 12 hours Wednesday. After Lúcia’s votes Thursday, one justice remained.

Prosecutors described the case as necessary to protect Brazilian democracy from its greatest threat since the country’s military dictatorship ended in 1985. Bolsonaro and supporters including Trump have called it a witch hunt orchestrated by political rivals to keep him out of next year’s presidential election, a potential rematch with the left-wing Lula, 79.

Bolsonaro was already prohibited from running for office until 2030 for spreading false information to undermine the credibility of Brazil’s electoral system. He has argued that the ban disenfranchises the many Brazilians who want to vote for him and hopes, with popular support, it will be overturned.

He’s also taken his defense beyond Brazil. Eduardo Bolsonaro, a federal congressman and son of the former president, moved to the United States this year and has lobbied the White House for help. In July, Trump announced diplomatic and economic sanctions to pressure Brazil and individual justices to drop the charges against his friend.

Moraes, who is overseeing the court’s investigations of Bolsonaro, was barred from entering the United States under the Global Magnitsky Act, an Obama-era law intended to punish corrupt foreign officials and serious human rights abusers. The Treasury ordered any assets he might own in the United States frozen and prohibited U.S. businesses and individuals from transacting business with him. Trump announced a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian goods entering the United States.

Moraes opened the proceedings last week by defending the court’s sovereignty from foreign threats. “This attempt of obstruction will not affect the impartiality or independence of the justices in this court,” he said.

Moraes told The Washington Post last month that U.S. authorities didn’t understand the case. “Here, we will uphold the Brazilian Constitution and the Brazilian laws,” he said, “regardless of internal or external pressures.”

Brazilian authorities say Bolsonaro’s campaign to delegitimize the country’s electoral system and plan a military coup started in 2021 and culminated in the violent attacks on government buildings on Jan. 8, 2023, a week after Lula’s inauguration. Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed the presidential palace, congress and the Supreme Court in Brasília to demand he be reinstated in a riot that echoed the attempt by Trump supporters to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The evidence against Bolsonaro included a document that prosecutors said was a draft of an unpublished presidential decree that would have granted him emergency powers to seize control of the country’s top electoral court to ensure “fairness and correction.” Investigators said Bolsonaro, a former army officer, edited and presented the decree to military leaders, but was unable to secure the support he needed to move forward.

As part of the plot, prosecutors said, Bolsonaro approved a plan to assassinate Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Moraes. They say a draft of the plan was printed at the presidential palace.

Moraes framed the trial as a turning point for Brazilian democracy, but analysts say congress could undo at least some of the court’s work.

“It is highly likely that congress will soon approve an amnesty or reduced sentences for that broader group who was in Brasília on January 8th,” said Carlos Fico, a historian at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. “As for Bolsonaro himself, if a right-wing candidate wins next year’s presidential election, a pardon for him is seen as a strong possibility.”

Bolsonaro’s allies have been pushing for an amnesty law for anyone, including the former president, accused of involvement in the coup attempt. But such a law would be subject to Supreme Court review. A majority of the justices have said the constitution prohibits pardons or amnesty for perpetrators of crimes against the democratic rule of law.

In another echo of Trump, Bolsonaro never formally conceded the 2022 election. He left for Florida before Lula’s inauguration and refused to hand over the presidential sash, the ritual that reaffirms the country’s democracy.

During his four-year presidency from 2019 to 2022, Bolsonaro dismantled environmental protections in the Amazon rainforest, downplayed the coronavirus pandemic and stoked calls among his supporters for a military intervention to prevent Lula’s return to power. He clashed frequently with the Supreme Court.