Brazil's federal police said Thursday they indicted former President Jair Bolsonaro and 36 other people for allegedly attempting a coup to keep him in office after his defeat in the 2022 elections. Police said their findings were being delivered Thursday to Brazil's Supreme Court, which must decide whether to refer them to Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, who will either formally charge Bolsonaro and put him on trial, or toss the investigation, the AP reports. The right-wing former president has denied all claims he tried to stay in office after his narrow electoral defeat in 2022 to his rival, leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The 700-page police document will likely take several days for the court to review, Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes said. Dozens of former and current Bolsonaro aides also were indicted, including Gen. Walter Braga Netto, who was his running mate in the 2022 campaign; former Army commander Gen. Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira; Valdemar Costa Neto, the chairman of Bolsonaro's Liberal Party; and his veteran former adviser, Gen. Augusto Heleno. The investigation started last year.
On Tuesday, as part of the same probe, the federal police arrested four military and a federal police officer accused of plotting to overthrow the government following the 2022 elections, including alleged plans to kill Lula and other top officials. Other investigations focus on Bolosnaro's potential roles in smuggling diamond jewelry into Brazil without properly declaring them, and in directing a subordinate to falsify his and others' COVID-19 vaccination statuses. Bolsonaro has denied any involvement in either. Another probe found that he had abused his authority to cast doubt on the country's voting system, and judges barred him from running again until 2030. (More Jair Bolsonaro stories.)
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