Brazil’s Bolsonaro and allies indicted in 2022 coup plot probe

By Jennifer Hauser, Julia Vargas Jones, Stefano Pozzebon and Tara John, CNN

(CNN) — Brazilian authorities have indicted the country’s former president Jair Bolsonaro, alongside 36 other individuals as part of the investigation into an alleged coup plot to keep power following the election of his successor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

On Thursday, Bolsonaro was among the 37 individuals indicted by Brazil’s federal police as part of the investigation into the fallout of the 2022 presidential elections, in which the far-right leader’s bid for reelection was defeated, CNN Brasil reports.

This comes after police alleged, according to CNN Brasil, that Bolsonaro had “full knowledge” of a plan to prevent Lula and his government from taking office after his election victory.

Federal police sent their investigation report, which is hundreds of pages long, to the Supreme Court in Brasilia, CNN Brasil reports. Brazil’s attorney general will now decide whether to confirm the indictments or scrap the investigation. If the indictments are confirmed, a trial is expected to take place next year.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied claims he attempted to remain in power following Lula’s 2022 presidential win at the polls.

In response to Thursday’s indictment, Bolsonaro said he has yet to see the indictment and “will wait for the lawyer,” in a post on X.

“This, obviously, will go to the Attorney General’s Office. The fight begins at the Attorney General’s Office. I cannot expect anything from a team that uses creativity to denounce me,” he wrote citing an interview he had with the online Brazilian newspaper Metrópoles.

Bolsonaro told the Brazilian magazine Veja, in an interview published Friday, he would “never agree to any plan to carry out a coup.”

Among those indicted are several high-profile names that include former aides, front-bench politicians who played a central role in Bolsonaro’s first government, and several retired generals, including Walter Braga Netto, former minister of defense, and Augusto Heleno, the former chief of presidential security.

Fernando Cerimedo, a political consultant to Argentina’s right-wing President Javier Milei, was also indicted.

Other names include Bolsonaro’s former intelligence chief, Alexandre Ramagem, who is currently a congressman; and Valdemar Costa-Neto, a former congressman and the chair of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party.

Anderson Torres, a former Minister of Justice and former Secretary of the Federal District in Brazil under Bolsonaro, was also listed, as was Ailton Barros, a solider who was expelled from the army in 2006.

Other military personnel indicted included Colonel Anderson Lima de Moura, and Colonel Carlos Giovani Delevati Pasini.

Tuesday arrests

The indictment comes days after Brazilian police arrested five people, including a former adviser to Bolsonaro, in relation to the same investigation. The alleged coup plotters envisaged the assassination of Lula’s Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court said in its arrest order.

The alleged plot also involved military personnel with training in special forces, the Federal Police said Tuesday, and planned the eventual creation of an “Institutional Crisis Management Office” in Brazil’s government that the coup plotters would control.

According to the court order on Tuesday, the plot also considered several methods to carry out the political assassinations, including the use of poison or explosive devices.

The order, signed by Moraes on Sunday, authorized the preventative detention of the five suspects, including retired general Mário Fernandes – the second-highest ranking executive of the General Secretariat of the Presidency during Bolsonaro’s administration, per CNN Brasil.

Bolsonaro has since distanced himself from Fernandes and said he was not aware of any plan to assassinate authorities. “Discussing a plan with me to kill someone, that never happened,” Bolsonaro told Veja.

On Thursday, President Lula said at an event at the presidential palace that “I have to be very thankful now, even more so because I am alive. The attempt to poison me and Alckmin did not work, we are here.”

According to the police warrant carried out on Tuesday, Bolsonaro allegedly met with officials from the army and navy as well as the minister of defense in December 2022 to present a document detailing the legal framework that would keep him in power.

Bolsonaro criticized Moraes in his X post on Tuesday, accusing the justice of “leading the entire investigation, adjusting statements, arresting people without charges, fishing for evidence, and having a very creative team of advisers.”

His son, Flavio Bolsonaro, who is a senator in the Brazilian Congress, suggested in a post on X on Tuesday that no crime had actually been committed.

“As disgusting as it may be to think about killing someone, it is not a crime. And for there to be an attempt, the execution must be interrupted by some situation beyond the control of the perpetrators. Which does not appear to have happened,” he wrote.

In October 2022, Lula narrowly beat Bolsonaro in the presidential election. Bolsonaro’s supporters rejected the results and rioted in the capital Brasilia, storming government buildings on January 8, 2023.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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