Brazil police indict ex-president Bolsonaro and aides over alleged 2022 coup attempt
Ex-president Bolsonaro accused of plot to overthrow election result, but he rejects the accusations against him
Brazil’s federal police said Thursday they 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 sealed findings were being delivered Thursday to Brazil’s Supreme Court, which will refer them to Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, who decides either to formally charge Bolsonaro and put him on trial, or toss the investigation.
Bolsonaro told the website Metropoles that he was waiting for his lawyer to review the indictment, reportedly about 700 pages long. But he said he would fight the case and dismissed the investigation as being the result of “creativity”.
The former right-wing president has denied all claims 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”.
Dozens of former and current Bolsonaro aides also were indicted, including General Walter Braga Netto, who was his 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.
