Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro indicted for allegedly attempting coup after 2022 election

Brazil’s federal police said Thursday that its government had indicted former President Jair Bolsonaro and 36 other people for allegedly attempting a coup to remain in office after his 2022 reelection defeat.

The Brazilian police said the charges against the former president were part of a criminal conspiracy designed to keep the former general in office after he narrowly lost the election to leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Among those arrested in the purported plan include Gen. Walter Braga Netto, Bolsonaro’s vice-presidential running mate, who also served as the country’s former defense minister. The government said several former close aides of the former president were also charged as part of the conspiracy, which they allege was an attempt to “violently dismantle the constitutional state.”

The Federal Police reportedly delivered their sealed findings Thursday to Brazil’s Supreme Court, which will refer them to Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, who is then saddled with the decision to either formally charge and try Bolsonaro or dismiss the case.

According to Metropoles, Bolsonaro said he was waiting for his legal counsel to review the charges—a staggering 700 page indictment—before he offered a detailed, formal opinion on the matter.

However, he referred to the charges as a dose of “creativity” and said he would fight to ensure the charges were ultimately dismissed.

The Brazilian charges against the former president charge 37 individuals for working “to avoid the dissemination of incorrect news.”

Some of those charged included Valdemar Costa Neto, the chairman of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party, his veteran former adviser, Gen. Augusto Heleno, and former Army commander Gen. Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira.

The current coup related charges are not the only legal woes the former conservative president faces.

Another government investigation alleged that Bolsonaro abused his authority to cast doubt on the Brazilian election system, which resulted in a ban from running for office again until 2030.

He is also facing other charges for allegedly instructing an aide to falsify his and others’ COVID-19 vaccination statuses and smuggling diamond jewelry into Brazil without declaring them to authorities.  

Despite the election ban, Bolsonaro has said he will run for office in 2026, and some reports suggest the former conservative president’s followers were inspired by the recent reelection of former President Donald Trump who faced a flurry of criminal and civil cases on the state and federal level.

Many of those cases now appear to be diminishing. U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith is reportedly seeking ways to end his current federal investigations, and a Manhattan judge in New York has repeatedly delayed sentencing in the one case Trump was found guilty in

In Brazil however, the many cases Bolsonaro is facing has taken a legal toll against the former president.

Still, Bolsonaro has many allies in the Brazilian Congress, and some of them have been pushing legislation to pardon those involved in the Jan. 8, 2023 riots that took place in the capital after Lula da Silva was declared the winner.

Some reports suggest Boslonaro’s allies now want to amend the legislation include the former president as well in the form of an amnesty bill.

Other highly charged political criminal investigations are also underway in Brazil. Last week, one man executed a bombing outside the Supreme Court in the Brasilia capital city after he was prevented from entering.

On Tuesday, police arrested four military and a Federal Police officer of conspiring to assassinate the president and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.