The defense wrapped up its arguments in mid-August, while the prosecution presented its case in July. Sessions will be held until September 12 according to Brazil’s Supreme Court.
Bolsonaro, who denies any wrongdoing, is accused of five counts, including conspiracy to assassinate the current leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and a justice of the Supreme Court, as well as involvement in an armed criminal organization.
Before the Supreme Court hears his verdict and sentences, along with those of seven co-defendants, the former president “was not going to attend at least, not his first day,” according to Al Jazeera’s Monica Yanakiew, a reporter from Brasilia.
She noted that Bolsonaro has been under house arrest since August 4 and that his attorneys anticipate a conviction, claiming that there is “overwhelming evidence pointing to several crimes, including those alleged to be plotting a coup and attempting to undermine democracy.”
Additionally, the prosecution alleges that Bolsonaro’s supporters planned to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes and President Lula.
They also contend that a riot on January 8, 2023 in Brasilia, which occurred when Bolsonaro supporters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace one week after Lula took office, evoking a US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021 by Bolsonaro ally Donald Trump, was intended to stoke a military coup and remove the new president.
A conviction on the coup plot charge alone could result in a 12-year prison term.
Brazil’s former president has already been denied the right to run for office until 2030. After discovering that he abused his position and made baseless allegations about the electronic voting system, the country’s top electoral court imposed the ban.
According to a federal police investigation, Bolsonaro’s campaign against him included spreading false information as part of a multifaceted plan to maintain power.
According to Yanakiew, the incident “really brought Brazil and the United States’ relations to a very, very low point.”
Trump is currently slapding a steep 50 percent tariff on Brazilian imports while denouncing the trial as a “witch hunt.”
While the US Department of State punished Alexandre de Moraes, the justice in charge of the case, for his remarks, Bolsonaro’s allies have reacted with nationalist sentiments.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, the former president’s son and current Congress member, relocated to the US earlier this year and had previously fought for US sanctions to be lifted.
Brazilian authorities also consider Jair Bolsonaro a potential flight risk, and the Supreme Court has mandated increased security, including in-person surveillance around his home and vehicle inspections ahead of the verdict phase.
Bolsonaro’s trial breaks with Brazil’s longstanding practice of impunity. Bolsonaro lauds the country’s dark era, which was perpetuated by the 1979 Amnesty Law, in regards to military officials who had committed abuses during the dictatorship.
Source: Aljazeera
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