Brazil’s Supreme Court announces it will try Bolsonaro for coup attempt
Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain who presided over Brazil from 2019 to 2022, is accused of five crimes, including an alleged attempt to obliterate the democratic rule of law violently. He has called the accusations against him “grave and unfounded” and “grave and unfounded.”
A five-judge panel on Wednesday unanimously decided to trial Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro could receive a lengthy prison sentence, further isolating him, if he is found guilty in the court proceedings, which are anticipated later this year. A political heir has not been named by him.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is in charge of the case, clipped dramatic footage of Bolsonaro’s supporters storming government buildings in violent scenes just one week after the president’s inauguration in January 2023.
In part to try to sabotage the electronic voting machines in Brazil, Bolsonaro added, as part of his campaign against the election he lost.
Teresa Bo, a journalist from Buenos Aires, recalls the obscene and bloody scenes from Bolsonaro’s supporters’ inauguration in the capital Brasilia in January 2023.
Around 1,500 people were detained in the capital, according to her, “a week after Lula was sworn in, we saw thousands of supporters of President Bolsonaro storming buildings in Brazil.”
Bolsonaro voluntarily sat silently in the first row of the Supreme Court’s hearing on Tuesday, an echo of his ally, US President Donald Trump, who was at trial for the same thing last year, in a session at which the pair were charged with a charge against him and seven of his closest allies.
In order to stifle Lula’s declining popularity and pressure Congress to pass an amnesty bill in favor of him and his jailed supporters, Bolsonaro organized a beachfront rally in Rio de Janeiro in the days leading up to the landmark court hearing.
After two independent polling companies discovered that only between 20 and 30 000 people turned up, some allies speculated that the demonstration would attract more than a million backers.
Despite a ruling from Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court forbidding him from running for public office until 2030 for his efforts to discredit the country’s voting system, Bolsonaro has vowed to run for president once more next year.
Bolsonaro’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis as president has drawn in-depth legal scrutiny.
Source: Aljazeera
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