Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro denied participation in an alleged plot to remain in power and overturn the 2022 election result as he gave evidence on Tuesday for the first time before the Supreme Court over the charges.
Bolsonaro and seven close allies were being questioned by a panel of top judges as part of a trial over allegations they devised a multistep scheme to keep Bolsonaro in office despite his defeat to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
“There was never any talk of a coup. A coup is an abominable thing … Brazil couldn’t go through an experience like that. And there was never even the possibility of a coup in my government,” Bolsonaro said.
The defendants are standing trial on five counts: attempting to stage a coup, involvement in an armed criminal organisation, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, aggravated damage and deterioration of listed heritage.
A coup conviction carries a sentence of up to 12 years. When combined with the other charges, the accused could be sentenced to decades behind bars.
The far-right politician entered the witness box just after 2.30pm local time. When asked by Justice Alexandre de Moraes at the beginning of questioning whether the accusation was true, Bolsonaro said no.
“The accusation does not hold, Your Excellency,” Bolsonaro said. The former president has repeatedly denied the allegations and said he is the target of political persecution.
The eight defendants are accused of making up the plan’s core group. Justices are also questioning Bolsonaro’s former running mate and defence minister Walter Braga Netto, former ministers Anderson Torres and Augusto Heleno and ex aide-de-camp Mauro Cid, among others.
Judges will hear from 26 other defendants at a later date. The court has already heard from dozens of witnesses in hearings that began in mid-May.
Cid, who has signed a plea bargain with the federal police, told the court on Monday that Bolsonaro read and edited a document that aimed at cancelling the election result.
Cid also said that Bolsonaro refused to interfere regarding camps by supporters that were set up in front of army facilities calling for a military intervention after the then-president lost the election.
Many of those followers were later part of the January 8 2023 riot, when the Supreme Court, Congress and presidential palace in Brasilia, the capital, were ransacked. Police say their uprising — which came after Lula was sworn in — was an attempt to force military intervention and oust the new president.
Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet alleges the riot was one part of a sprawling, antidemocratic scheme to overturn the election result.
Part of that plot allegedly included a plan to kill Lula and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The plan did not go ahead at the last minute because the accused failed to get the army’s commander on board, according to Mr Gonet.
Bolsonaro, a former military officer who was known to express nostalgia for the country’s past dictatorship, openly defied Brazil’s judicial system during his 2019-2022 term in office.
He has already been banned by Brazil’s top electoral court from running in elections until 2030 over abuse of power while in office and casting unfounded doubts on the country’s electronic voting system.
Thiago Bottino, a law professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think tank and university, called the trial historic.
“It’s the first time we see people accused of an attempted coup are being subjected to a criminal trial, with the guarantees of due criminal process – being able to defend themselves but answering for these accusations,” he said.
