Brazil prosecutor charges Bolsonaro with 2022 coup plot

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro knew and agreed to a plan to poison his successor and current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as part of an attempted coup, Brazil's Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet said Tuesday.

Gonet formally charged Bolsonaro and 33 accomplices with attempting a coup to stay in office after losing the 2022 election.

What are the allegations against Bolsonaro?

"The members of the criminal organization structured at the presidential palace a plan to attack institutions, aiming to bring down the system of the powers and the democratic order, which received the sinister name of 'Green and Yellow Dagger,'" Gonet said in the report.

"The plan was conceived and taken to the knowledge of the president, and he agreed to it," he added.

The Supreme Court will now weigh the charges and decide whether to open a case against Bolsonaro, who has denied the charges, saying he is the victim of "persecution."

Prosecutors based their decision on a more than 800-page federal police report released last year after a two-year investigation.

What was Bolsonaro's plan?

According to the prosecutor's statement, the conspiracy began in 2021 with "systematic attacks on the electronic voting system, through public statements and on the internet."

During the second round of the presidential election in October 2022, security agencies were mobilized to "prevent voters from voting for the opposition candidate," according to the statement.

The accomplices involved at this stage worked to facilitate "the acts of violence and vandalism of January 8, 2023," when Bolsonaro supporters stormed the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the criminal organization headed by Bolsonaro had pressured army chiefs "in favor of forceful actions in the political scene to prevent the elected president from taking office," the statement said.

Investigations also revealed a plot to assassinate Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and a high-ranking judge "with the approval" of Bolsonaro.

The alleged plan was to poison Lula and shoot dead Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, one of Bolsonaro's former foes.

Edited by Richard Connor