(AFP) – Brazil’s Supreme Court vowed Tuesday not to bend to pressure from Washington in deciding the fate of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, a Donald Trump ally on trial for allegedly plotting a coup. Kicking off a five-day process of passing judgment in the final stage of the trial, presiding judge Alexandre Moraes said Bolsonaro had aimed to install a “real dictatorship.”
Bolsonaro, 70, risks a prison sentence of 43 years if convicted of conspiring to cling to power after losing the 2022 elections to leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, now in office. The trial of Bolsonaro, who claims to be the victim of political persecution, has soured Brasilia’s relations with President Trump, whose administration slapped a 50 percent tariff on some Brazilian exports over what he termed a “witch hunt” targeting his friend. It also imposed financial sanctions on Moraes. The judge insisted Tuesday the court will not bow to “internal or external threats and coercion” and will stand “absolutely inflexible in defending national sovereignty.”
Bolsonaro and his seven co-accused, including former ministers and generals, will learn their fate by September 12. The final phase of the trial has been staggered over five non-consecutive days, with statements by Moraes and each of the four other judges, as well as defense lawyers and prosecutors. At the end, the judges will vote whether to convict or acquit. Security around the court has been stepped up.
Apart from a lengthy prison sentence, a guilty verdict could also scupper Bolsonaro’s hopes of making a Trump-style comeback from a criminal conviction to the country’s top job. The former army officer, who is under house arrest, was not at court for Tuesday’s proceedings. One of his lawyers, Paulo Cunha Bueno, said Bolsonaro was feeling “weak.” The right-winger, who served a single term in office from 2019 to 2022, has had recurring health problems since being stabbed in the abdomen at a campaign rally in 2018.
The trial is the first on coup charges of a former Brazilian president. For many Brazilians, it is a test of democracy 40 years after the end of military dictatorship, while for others, it is perceived as a political show trial. Prosecutors accuse Bolsonaro of having led a “criminal organization” that conspired to claw power back from Lula. They charge that Bolsonaro plotted to declare a state of emergency and call new elections but failed to win the support of the military top brass. Prosecutors also allege that he knew of a plan to assassinate Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin, and Moraes.
On January 8, 2023, mobs of Bolsonaro supporters stormed the Supreme Court, presidential palace, and parliament, calling for the military to depose Lula, who had just been inaugurated. Bolsonaro was in the United States at the time but has been accused of instigating the unrest. The violence bore uncanny similarities to the January 6, 2021 attack by Trump supporters on Congress in Washington in a failed attempt to prevent certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election win.
A simple majority of three of the five judges is needed for a guilty verdict. Bolsonaro can appeal to a full chamber of the Supreme Court. His allies, meanwhile, are pushing Congress to pass an amnesty law to save Bolsonaro from prison. Scuffles ensued Tuesday between supporters and detractors of Bolsonaro outside the luxury gated community in Brasilia where the ex-president is under house arrest, AFP observed. Backers tried to tear down a banner reading “Bolsonaro to jail” held aloft by demonstrators who also bore a giant inflatable doll dressed in prison clothes. The sentencing proceedings will continue Wednesday.
– Ramon SAHMKOW and Jose OSORIO
© 2024 AFP
