Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was hanged on Tuesday for allegedly plotting a coup to overturn his 2022 election defeat, a move that would have been difficult for the far-right leader to make a political comeback.
Attorney General Paulo Gonçalves accused Bolsonaro and his running mate, Walter Braga Neto, of running a “criminal organization” aimed at overthrowing the country’s 40-year-old democracy.
The 34 people charged include Bolsonaro’s former national security adviser, retired general Augusto Heleno, and several military officers, including former navy chief Almir Garnier Santos, according to a legal document from the country’s top prosecutor’s office.
“Responsibility for the artificial actions against the democratic order lies with a criminal organization led by Jair Messias Bolsonaro, based on your presidential power project,” the indictment said.
Unless the judge overseeing the case, Alexandre de Moraes, considers him a flight risk, Bolsonaro is unlikely to be arrested before his trial.
The charges come months after federal police concluded a two-year investigation into Bolsonaro’s role in the election boycott campaign that ended in January 2023, a week after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office, culminating in riots sparked by his supporters that swept through the capital, Brasilia.
Prosecutors have said the plot included plans to poison Lula, a leftist moderate who narrowly defeated Bolsonaro in the presidential election in late 2022.
“They wanted total control over the three power centers; they outlined a media office that would be tasked with organizing the new order they intended to establish,” the indictment states. “One plan ended with this telling phrase: ‘Lula will not go up to the (presidential palace) for the ceremony.’”
