{"id":29148,"date":"2025-03-27T06:03:29","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T10:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=29148"},"modified":"2025-03-27T06:03:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T10:03:29","slug":"brazil-supreme-court-rules-former-president-jair-bolsonaro-will-stand-trial-on-coup-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2025\/03\/27\/brazil-supreme-court-rules-former-president-jair-bolsonaro-will-stand-trial-on-coup-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil Supreme Court rules former President Jair Bolsonaro will stand trial on coup charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Brazil&#8217;s former President Jair Bolsonaro will stand trial for allegedly attempting to stage a coup against current president, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, after a ruling from the country&#8217;s top court.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Supreme Court&#8217;s five-member panel voted unanimously in favour of the trial going ahead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It could start as early as this year, and if found guilty Bolsonaro, 70, could face years in prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Speaking after the court&#8217;s decision, Bolsonaro told a press conference the charges against him were &#8220;grave and baseless&#8221;. He has always denied trying to block Lula&#8217;s inauguration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It seems they have something personal against me,&#8221; he added in a post on X, referring to the judges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bolsonaro says he is the victim of &#8220;political persecution&#8221; aimed at preventing him from running again for president in 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The panel was tasked with determining whether there was enough evidence to put Bolsonaro on trial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The first to cast his vote on Wednesday was the judge heading the panel, Alexandre de Moraes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He recommended that Bolsonaro, as well as seven other former government officials described by the attorney-general as &#8220;co-conspirators&#8221;, stand trial over the events which led up to the storming of government buildings by his supporters on 8 January 2023, a week after Lula&#8217;s inauguration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The seven men accused of being co-conspirators are:<\/p>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1le81vw-ListContainer e5tfeyi0\">\n<ul role=\"list\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Alexandre Ramagem, former spy chief<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Adm Almir Garnier Santos, former navy commander<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Anderson Torres, former security minister<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Gen Augusto Heleno, former minister for institutional security<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro&#8217;s former assistant<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Gen Walter Braga Netto, former defence minister<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Gen Paulo S\u00e9rgio Nogueira de Oliveira former defence minister<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-12l5xzx-LinksComponentWrapper e3eyuya0\" data-component=\"links-block\">\n<section class=\"ssrcss-msolhr-LinksWrapper e3eyuya5\">\n<ul class=\"ssrcss-1y914pf-InContentLinksGrid e3eyuya3\" role=\"list\">\n<li class=\"ssrcss-r2yl4r-PromoItem e3eyuya1\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-j49bjq-Promo e1vyq2e80\" data-testid=\"promo\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1djxueb-PromoCompact e18gnqux0\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1d68cot-PromoContent exn3ah913\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1f3bvyz-Stack e1y4nx260\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1sen9vx-PromoHeadline exn3ah910\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/av\/world-latin-america-64206282\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"visually-hidden ssrcss-1f39n02-VisuallyHidden e16en2lz0\">Video shows Brazil Supreme Court mass break-in<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ssrcss-r2yl4r-PromoItem e3eyuya1\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-j49bjq-Promo e1vyq2e80\" data-testid=\"promo\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1djxueb-PromoCompact e18gnqux0\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1d68cot-PromoContent exn3ah913\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1f3bvyz-Stack e1y4nx260\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1sen9vx-PromoHeadline exn3ah910\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-latin-america-64206220\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span aria-hidden=\"false\">Brazil&#8217;s Congress storming<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-19w8cxh-ComponentWrapper-HeadlineComponentWrapper egtrm1f0\" data-component=\"subheadline-block\">\n<h2 id=\"How-did-we-get-here\" class=\"ssrcss-pbttu9-Heading e10rt3ze0\" tabindex=\"-1\"><span role=\"text\">How did we get here?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bolsonaro, a former army captain and admirer of US President Donald Trump, governed Brazil from January 2019 to December 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He narrowly lost a presidential election run-off in October 2022 to his left-wing rival, Lula.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bolsonaro never publicly acknowledged his defeat. Many of his supporters spent weeks camping outside army barracks in an attempt to convince the military to prevent Lula from being sworn in as president as scheduled on 1 January 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A week after Lula&#8217;s inauguration, on 8 January 2023, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in the capital, Brasilia, in what federal investigators say was an attempted coup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Parts of the buildings were ransacked and police arrested 1,500 people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bolsonaro was in the United States at the time and has always denied any links to the rioters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A federal police investigation into the riots and the events leading up to them was launched.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The investigators said they had found evidence that there was &#8220;a criminal organisation&#8221; which had &#8220;acted in a coordinated manner&#8221; to keep then-President Bolsonaro in power.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Their 884-page report, which was unsealed in November 2024, alleged that &#8220;then-President Jair Messias Bolsonaro planned, acted and was directly and effectively aware of the actions of the criminal organisation aiming to launch a coup d&#8217;etat and eliminate the democratic rule of law&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Brazil&#8217;s Attorney-General, Paulo Gonet, went even further in his report published last month, in which he accused Bolsonaro of not just being aware but of leading the criminal organisation that he says sought to overthrow Lula.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">According to Gonet&#8217;s report, the alleged plot included a plan to poison Lula and shoot dead Alexandre de Moraes &#8211; the Supreme Court justice who headed the panel which has now decided that the case should proceed to trial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bolsonaro has always denied the allegations which he says are politically motivated and designed to stop him from running for president again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">While he is already barred from running for public office until 2030 for falsely claiming that Brazil&#8217;s voting system was vulnerable to fraud, he had declared his intention to fight that ban so he could run for a second term in 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, Wednesday&#8217;s decision by the Supreme Court has placed a very high hurdle in his way to a possible candidacy.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c1d4v3dwn03o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">Brazil&#8217;s former President Jair Bolsonaro will stand trial for allegedly attempting to stage a coup against current president, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, after a ruling from the country&#8217;s top court. The Supreme Court&#8217;s five-member <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2025\/03\/27\/brazil-supreme-court-rules-former-president-jair-bolsonaro-will-stand-trial-on-coup-charges\/\" title=\"Brazil Supreme Court rules former President Jair Bolsonaro will stand trial on coup charges\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,6],"tags":[8573,9081,786,8201,9080,5962],"class_list":{"0":"post-29148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-world","10":"tag-attempted-coup","11":"tag-brasilia","12":"tag-brazil","13":"tag-brazil-supreme-court","14":"tag-jair-bolsonaro","15":"tag-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva","16":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29150,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29148\/revisions\/29150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}