The Brazilian prosecutor files charges against the former president

By Eléonore Hughes and Mauricio Savarese, Associated Press

Rio de Janeiro (AP) – The Attorney General of Brazil officially charged the former president Jair Bolsonaro to have tried a coup to stay in office after his electoral defeat in 2022, in a plot that included a plan to poison His successor and the current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and kill a judge of the Supreme Court.

The Attorney General Paulo Gonet alleges that Bolsonaro and 33 others participated in a plan to stay in power. The alleged conspiracy, he wrote, understood a plan to poison Lula and shoot down the judge of the Supreme Court who died Alexandre de Moraes, an enemy of the former president.

“The members of the criminal organization have structured a plan at the presidential palace to attack the institutions, aimed at bringing down the system of powers and of the democratic order, which received the sinister name of” green and yellow dagger “, wrote Gonet in an indictment of 272 pages. “The plan was designed and taken into account the president, and he accepted it.”

In November, Brazilian federal police submitted an 884 -page report with Gonet detailing the program. They lighten a systematic effort to sow the distrust of the electoral system, writing a decree to provide legal coverage for the plot, putting pressure on military brass to support the plan and encourage a riot in the capital.

The Supreme Court will analyze the accusations and, if accepted, Bolsonaro will be tried.

The far -right leader denies reprehensible acts. “I have no concerns about the accusations, Zero,” Bolsonaro told journalists on Tuesday during a visit to the Senate in Brasilia.

“Have you seen the coup decree, by chance?” You don’t have it. Neither do me, ”he added.

A Bolsonaro lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

In addition to participating in a coup, the 34 accused are accused of having participated in an armed criminal organization, an attempt at violent violence of the law of democratic law, damage qualified by violence and a serious threat to The assets of the state and the deterioration of the list Heritage, according to a press release from the prosecutor’s press office.

Gonet said that the criminal organization he charged “had the president (then) himself and his running mate, General Braga Clean as leaders”.

“At the same time accepted, stimulated and accomplished acts which are described in our criminal legislation as attacking the existence and independence of (the branches) of power and democratic domination,” wrote Gonet in his report.

Savarese reported to Sao Paulo.

Originally published: February 18, 2025 at 6:08 p.m. PST