BRASILIA – Brazil’s Supreme Court on Wednesday (Thursday Manila time) ordered far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro to stand trial on charges of plotting a coup, in a case that could torpedo his hopes of making a Donald Trump-style political comeback.
The trial will be the first of an ex-leader accused of attempting to take power by force since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1985 following two decades of military dictatorship.
A five-judge panel of the Supreme Court voted unanimously to put Bolsonaro on trial after finding there was sufficient evidence against him.
Bolsonaro was not in court for the ruling, but in comments to reporters he slammed the allegations as “unfounded.”
“It seems they have something personal against me,” he said.
If convicted, the 70-year-old former army captain, who had nurtured hopes of standing in elections next year, risks a jail term of over 40 years, and political banishment.
Bolsonaro, who served a single term from 2019 to 2022, is accused of leading a “criminal organization” that conspired to keep him in power regardless of the outcome of the 2022 election.
He lost to leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva by a razor-thin margin.
Investigators say that after his defeat, but while still in office, the coup plotters planned to declare a state of emergency so that new elections could be held.
He is also accused of being aware of a plot to assassinate Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin, and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes — a Bolsonaro foe and one of the judges in the current case.
“I only hope that justice is served,” Lula told reporters on Thursday morning in Japan.