Brazil’s federal police said Thursday 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 would either formally charge Bolsonaro and put him on trial or toss the investigation.
The right-wing former president has denied all claims that he tried to stay in office after his narrow electoral defeat in 2022 to leftist Luiz Inácio 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 will probably take several days for the court to review, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said.
Dozens of former and current Bolsonaro aides were among those indicted, including Gen. Walter Braga Netto, who was his running mate in the 2022 campaign; former Army commander Gen. Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira; Valdemar Costa Neto, the chairman of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party; and his veteran former advisor Gen. Augusto Heleno.
The investigation started last year. On Tuesday, four military men and one federal police agent were arrested as part of the same inquiry.
Other investigations focus on Bolosnaro’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 involvement in either.
Another investigation 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 São 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,” Melo said.
On Tuesday, the federal police arrested four military officials and a federal police officer accused of plotting to overthrow the government after the 2022 election, including plans to kill Lula and other top officials.
Pessoa and Savarese write for the Associated Press.