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Rabat – Brazilian Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet yesterday called for the country’s Supreme Court to find Jair Bolsonaro guilty of inciting public disorder and attempting to destabilize Brazil’s fragile democratic order.
This call comes amid the trial of the former Brazilian president for crimes linked to the attempted national insurrection in Brasilia in January 2023.
The Prosecutor-General filed a 517-page document on Monday stating that Bolsonaro had conspired to lead an “armed criminal association to violently overthrow the democratic order.”
The case against Bolsonaro will now be sent to the nation’s Supreme Court to deliberate during the summer and announce a decision in September. If found guilty, Bolsonaro could potentially be handed a forty-year prison sentence.
Bolsonaro, a far-right wing populist had been president from 2019 to 2022 and during that time was criticized for human rights abuses and policies in the Amazon Rainforest.
After the election of the leftist trade union leader and former president Lula Da Silva, Bolsonaro refused to concede the result of the election and continuously pushed out theories of electoral fraud.
This resulted in his supporters storming the National Congress and Presidential Palace in Brasilia on January 8, 2023, while he was in Florida. This came just days after Lula’s inauguration as president.
The police in the months after indicted Bolsonaro for actions taken to lead this event, and close allies of the former President. It was seen as a coup d’etat as Bolsonaro had on numerous occasions celebrated the authoritarian period from 1964 to 1985.
In a speech just days before the Presidential election in 2022 Bolsonaro had stated that there were three options, “prison, death or victory, but I will tell those bastards in Brasilia that I have no intention of going to prison.”
Bolsonaro has called the trial a witch-hunt and claimed that it is politically motivated, stating: “All the accusations against me are false. I never violated democracy or the constitution.”
America Gets Involved
Bolsonaro is a close ally of American President Donald Trump, who in 2019 told the world’s press that he was doing a “fantastic job, great job” as president.
Trump has expressed sympathy for Bolsonaro and stated that Brazil should stop this political persecution of the former President.
Last week in response to this trial, Trump put 50% tariffs on Brazil in a move that is widely seen as political. Trump said that the tariffs can be removed if Brazil drops the case against Bolsonaro.
However, Lula Da Silva’s government quickly struck back at this move and put reciprocal tariffs on the US.
Protestors also filled the streets of the Brazilian capital to protest against the US move and state that they were not afraid of the Trump administration.
It is very likely that Bolsonaro, who is already banned from running for president in 2026, will be found guilty of these crimes and sentenced to a term in prison.
