Brazil braces for Bolsonaro's day in court as ex-president testifies over ‘coup plot'

Brazil's former president, Jair Bolsonaro, will finally find himself in the dock this week, accused of masterminding an armed far-right conspiracy to seize power after losing the 2022 presidential election.
The 70-year-old paratrooper turned populist, who governed from 2019 until 2023, is scheduled to be interrogated by the supreme court as it seeks to untangle what federal police claim was a sprawling three-year plot to vandalize one of the world's largest democracies.
Seven other alleged co-conspirators will also be questioned, including four former Bolsonaro ministers – three of them army generals; the ex-commander of the navy; and the ex-president's former right-hand man, Lt Col Mauro Cid.
Bolsonaro's day in court, which is expected to come on Tuesday, is a milestone moment for a country that escaped from two decades of military dictatorship in 1985 but appears to have come perilously close to a return to authoritarian rule after the veteran leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat Bolsonaro in the 2022 presidential election.
'This is the first time in Brazilian history that there is the prospect of the perpetrators of a coup being brought to justice,' said Bernardo Mello Franco, a political writer for the newspaper O Globo.
'Brazilian history is full of military coups and counter-coups … but throughout history the characters [behind them] have always gone unpunished, either because they succeeded in pulling off the coup and seized control of the judiciary, or because they were granted amnesty, which is what happened after the [1964-85] military dictatorship,' Mello Franco added.
Bolsonaro is accused of trying – but ultimately failing – to overturn Lula's victory through a murderous plot, which allegedly involved assassinating or arresting key political rivals including the president-elect, his vice-president-elect, Geraldo Alckmin, and the supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes. He has repeatedly denied the charges.
The prospect of watching Bolsonaro go on trial has thrilled his many progressive detractors who, as well as the alleged coup attempt, blame the ex-president for rampant Amazon devastation, historic attacks on the rights of Indigenous peoples, human rights and Brazilian culture, and a calamitous and anti-scientific response to a Covid pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands of people.
There is broad consensus among experts that Bolsonaro will be found guilty and convicted later this year, meaning the former congressman could face political oblivion and a decades-long prison sentence.
'Bolsonaro himself believes he has already been convicted by the supreme court – he's said it on numerous occasions,' Mello Franco said. 'Those who understand the supreme court also believe he'll be found guilty. There's a great deal of evidence against him.'
Last week the former head of the air force, Brig Carlos de Almeida Baptista Júnior, gave damning evidence, telling the supreme court that at one point in 2022 the former head of the army, Gen Marco Antônio Freire Gomes, threatened to arrest Bolsonaro if he sought any kind of 'institutional rupture'.
But major question marks remain over whether, if convicted, Bolsonaro will ever actually serve time.
Already one rightwing presidential hopeful in the 2026 election, Romeu Zema, has pledged to pardon Bolsonaro if he wins power. Polls suggest that if Lula seeks re-election he will face a tough battle against whichever rightwing candidate inherits the votes of the still-popular Bolsonaro, who has already been barred from running because of his attacks on Brazil's electronic voting system.
Potential heirs include one of Bolsonaro's politician sons, Eduardo or Flávio Bolsonaro; his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro; or the conservative governors of the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Paraná, Tarcísio de Freitas, Zema and Ratinho Júnior.
There are also doubts over how Bolsonaro, a notoriously rambunctious Trump-inspired populist with a huge social media following, will behave when his day in court arrives.
On the eve of his appearance, Bolsonaro promised he would not use the hearing to 'lacrar', a Portuguese word which roughly translates as 'take the piss', 'troll' or 'drop the mic'. But the ex-president said his 'inquisition' would be 'worth watching' and urged followers to tune in to see that 'truth' was on his side.
'It will be broadcast live, which is bonkers,' Mello Franco said of the politically charged session, declining to forecast how Bolsonaro might behave in the dock. 'The only predictable thing about Bolsonaro is that he'll be unpredictable.'

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

The Independent

2 hours ago

• The Independent

Eight dead and 13 injured after hot air balloon crashes in Brazil

Eight people have died after a hot-air balloon caught fire and tumbled from the sky in Brazil. A further 13 people including the pilot were injured in the incident in the southern state of Santa Catarina on Saturday morning, according to local officials. Shocking footage shared by local news outlet G1 showed billows of smoke coming from the balloon, which was in flames as it hurtled towards the ground and crashed into a rural area near a health centre. Horrifying videos captured the moment the balloon appeared to crumple before plummeting down, with reports suggesting at least one person jumped to escape the blaze mid-air. Of the victims, four died after being burned in the basket and another four in the fall, G1 reported. Miraculously some survivors were all taken to hospitals, Santa Catarina's military fire brigade said, adding that 21 people were on board in total, including the pilot. According to Jornal Razao, a Brazilian outlet, the pilot told authorities: 'I don't know if it stayed lit or if it reignited on its own, but it was the torch that started it all.' 'We are in mourning. A tragedy has happened. We will see how it unfolds, what happened, why it happened. But the important thing now is for the state structure to do what it can,' governor Jorginho Mello said in a video on X. Mr Mello said he has asked authorities to head to the municipality 'to do as much as possible to rescue, to help, to take to hospital, to comfort the families'. He added: 'We continue to monitor the situation.' Three people died hugging each other, said Ulisses Gabriel, chief of Santa Catarina's civil police force, on X. "It hurts the soul." Authorities have opened an investigation and the results will be made public within 30 days, Santa Catarina's public safety secretary Flïvio Graff told journalists. According to the civil police, the pilot has given testimony and they will also gather statements from survivors, he added. The vehicle was run by Sobrevoar, the outlet reported, adding that it had the necessary licences. Last Sunday, a balloon fell in Sao Paulo state, killing a 27-year-old woman and injuring 11 others, G1 reported. Praia Grande is a common destination for hot-air ballooning, a popular activity in some parts of Brazil's south during June festivities that celebrate Catholic saints. Praia Grande City Hall said: 'The City of Praia Grande expresses its solidarity with the families involved in the balloon accident that occurred on the morning of Saturday, 21 June.' Last Sunday, a hot air balloon crashed in central Turkey, leaving its pilot dead and 19 Indonesian tourists injured, a local official said. In a statement, the governor's office said the balloon was affected by a sudden change of wind. It was trying to make a hard landing near the village of Gozlukuyu in Aksaray province, when the pilot fell out of the balloon's basket and his feet got tangled in a rope, Aksaray governor Mehmet Ali Kumbuzoglu said. 'Unfortunately, our pilot got stuck under the basket and died,' he said, adding that the injured tourists were taken to a hospital.

Daily Mail​

3 hours ago

• Daily Mail​

Woman, 32, arrested over fatal hit-and-run of Netflix star Sara Burack in Hamptons

A 32-year-old Virginia woman has been arrested in connection with a fatal hit-and-run incident that claimed the life of a popular Netflix actress, authorities said. Amanda Kempton was charged with leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident in connection to the hit-and-run death of Million Dollar Beach House star Sara Burack, according to the Southampton Town Police Department. Burack, 40, a real estate agent and former reality television personality was struck by a vehicle shortly before 3:00 am on Montauk Highway near Villa Paul Restaurant in Hampton Bays, New York. Emergency responders found her critically injured at the scene, and she later died at Stony Brook University Hospital. The vehicle involved fled the scene, prompting a large-scale search by local and state authorities. Following an extensive manhunt led by the Southampton Town Police Department and the New York State Police Accident Reconstruction Unit, Kempton was taken into custody. She has been charged with leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in death, a Class D felony under New York State law. If convicted, she faces up to four years in prison. Law enforcement officials have not yet disclosed details about how Kempton was identified as a suspect. Kempton is scheduled to be arraigned on Saturday as the investigation remains active, according to the New York Post. Public officials have urged anyone with additional information about the incident to contact Southampton Town Police, as the full circumstances surrounding the event are still under investigation, local outlet, Dan's Papers reported. Burack was a licensed real estate broker with experience in the luxury real estate market. In addition to her professional accomplishments, she gained national visibility as a cast member on the Netflix series Million Dollar Beach House. She appeared on Netflix's Million Dollar Beach House, which ran for one season in 2020. The show pitted real estate agents against each other in a 'fierce' competition to close deals on luxury homes in the Hamptons Burack was also active in charitable work, including fundraising for leukemia research and animal rescue initiatives. Her sudden death has elicited an outpouring of grief from friends, former colleagues, and members of the entertainment and real estate communities. 'I want people to remember she was an amazing person who really cared for people,' close family friend and fellow realtor Paulette Corsair told Newsday. 'She was a hardworking real estate agent who was there for others. She was loved greatly by her friends and a close family.'

Times

4 hours ago

• Times

The wait of the law: justice delayed is an injustice in itself

Eight hundred and ten years ago, the ­writers of Magna Carta slipped a crucial word into the document they forced King John to sign. The monarch had to promise not to 'deny or delay' justice to his subjects. The law must decide — and, crucially, it must do so promptly. Today we report that the average wait for a case to come to trial at magistrates' courts has reached 346 days. For some people it extends to three years. The price of this indefensible delay is paid by the innocent. First, the victims, who after being traumatised by crime are left in limbo, with that trauma unresolved; second, those who are wrongly accused, living with an unjustified stain on their reputation and a shadow over their future. After eight centuries Magna Carta has no legal force, but its moral authority remains. The government should recognise that, and act accordingly. Justice delayed is not only justice denied: it is an injustice in itself.