Brazil’s former leader Jair Bolsonaro has been formally charged with leading a coup plot intended to keep him in power after losing the 2022 election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The hard-right politician was accused by the country’s attorney-general of leading a “criminal organisation” to subvert democracy in Latin America’s most populous nation.
Prosecutors said 33 other people were involved in the plot, including Bolsonaro’s vice-presidential candidate General Walter Braga Netto and nearly two dozen retired or serving senior military personnel.
Part of the plot included plans to assassinate Lula to prevent him from taking office, prosecutors alleged.
Brazil’s supreme court must now consider the charges and decide whether to proceed to a trial. If convicted, Bolsonaro, an ally of US President Donald Trump, could face a lengthy jail sentence.
A darling of Brazil’s conservatives, Bolsonaro has already been declared ineligible to run for public office until 2030 because of attacks on the country’s electoral system.
He also faces two other court cases over the alleged falsification of a Covid vaccine certificate and the illegal sale of jewels given to him as head of state.
In a filing to the supreme court, attorney-general Paulo Gonet said the charges “describe deeds carried out by a President of the Republic who forms a structured criminal organisation with other civil and military figures to prevent the result of the popular will expressed in the 2022 elections from being carried out”.
They were based on a detailed federal police report from last November.
There was no immediate reaction from Bolsonaro, who has previously painted himself as the victim of politically motivated persecution.
In recent days, the former president has attempted to rally his conservative forces in congress to pass an amnesty law for alleged coup plotters, but the speed of the unfolding prosecution appeared to have taken him by surprise.