Brazil’s federal police said Thursday that they had 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 former right-wing president has denied that he tried to stay in office after his narrow electoral defeat in 2022 to his rival, leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro has faced a series of legal threats since then.
Police said in a brief statement that the Supreme Court had agreed to reveal the names of all 37 people who were indicted “to avoid the dissemination of incorrect news.” The 700-page police document likely will take several days for the court to review, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said.
The others indicted included General Walter Braga Netto, who was Bolsonaro’s running mate in the 2022 campaign; former Army commander General Paulo Sergio Nogueira de Oliveira; Valdemar Costa Neto, the chairman of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party; and his veteran former adviser, General Augusto Heleno.
The investigation started last year. On Tuesday, four military officers and a federal police officer were arrested as part of the same probe. They were 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 Bolsonaro’s potential roles in smuggling diamond jewelry into Brazil without properly declaring it, 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.
The far-reaching investigations have weakened Bolsonaro’s status as a leader of Brazil’s right wing, said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo.
“Bolsonaro is already barred from running in the 2026 elections,” Melo told The Associated Press. “And if he is convicted, he could also be jailed by then. To avoid being behind bars, he will have to convince Supreme Court justices that he has nothing to do with a plot that involves dozens of his aides. That’s a very tall order.”
