The former President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has been found guilty of plotting a military coup.
Brazil’s Supreme Court reached the majority of three votes needed to find him guilty. One judge voted to acquit him, and another is yet to vote.
The 70-year-old has been convicted of leading a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the 2022 election to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
While the plot failed to enlist enough support from the military to go ahead, it did culminate in the storming of government buildings by Bolsonaro’s supporters on 8 January 2023, the justices found.
The charges carry heavy sentences and could add up to a prison term of more than 40 years. Sentencing is scheduled for Friday.
Casting the decisive vote, Justice Cármen Lúcia said on Thursday that Bolsonaro had triggered the “insurgency” of 8 January 2023, when thousands of his supporters vandalised the Supreme Court, the presidential palace, and Congress.
She found him guilty on all the five charges: attempting to stage a coup, leading an armed criminal organisation, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, and two more charges related to the damage of property during the storming of buildings in Brasília on 8 January 2023.
Bolsonaro has always maintained his innocence and has called the trial a “witch hunt”, arguing it was politically motivated.
His lawyers are expected to lodge appeals.
If two out of five justices on the Supreme Court panel vote “not guilty”, his lawyers could demand that the full Supreme Court – meaning all 11 justices – review the verdict.
The vote of the final justice to give his verdict, Cristiano Zanin, will therefore be keenly followed.
Bolsonaro has not been in court for any of the sessions of the final phase of the trial.
His lawyers cited health reasons for his decision to follow proceedings from his home in Brasília. He was stabbed in the stomach on the campaign trail in 2018 and has been having recurrent health problems since.
He has been under house arrest since the beginning of August after a police report alleged that he and his son, Eduardo, had tried to interfere in the trial.
His lawyer was present in court but left after Justice Lúcia had declared his client guilty of the attempted coup and armed criminal conspiracy, even before she had finished speaking.
The charges against Bolsonaro did not just relate to events of 8 January 2023.
Prosecutors said he had started to plot to stay in power long before, proposing launching a coup to military commanders and sowing unfounded doubts about the electoral system.
They also said that he knew of a plan to plot to assassinate Lula, his vice-presidential running mate, and a Supreme Court justice.
