By Ana Ionova
Brazilian authorities announced Thursday that they were recommending criminal charges against former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro over his role in a broad plot to cling to power after he lost the 2022 presidential election.
The accusations sharply escalate Bolsonaro’s legal troubles and highlight the extent of what authorities have called an organized attempt to subvert Brazil’s democracy. Bolsonaro narrowly lost to the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist known as Lula, but claimed the election had been fraudulent.
Brazil’s federal police urged prosecutors to charge Bolsonaro and three dozen others, including members of his inner circle, for the crimes of “violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état and criminal organization.”
The police did not provide any specifics about Bolsonaro’s actions that led to their recommendations.
The announcement comes two days after four members of an elite military unit, including a former top aide to Bolsonaro, were arrested and accused of planning to assassinate Lula shortly before he took office in January 2023.
The police have already recommended criminal charges against Bolsonaro in two separate cases: an effort to falsify his COVID-19 vaccination records and a plot to embezzle jewelry that he received as gifts from foreign leaders while in office.
Federal prosecutors will now decide whether to pursue charges in any of these cases. If they do, it will be the first time Bolsonaro faces criminal charges.
Authorities said Bolsonaro, along with dozens of close aides, ministers and military leaders, had participated in a plan to reverse the results of the elections and prevent Lula from taking office in January 2023.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, calling the investigation political persecution.
Although the police in Brazil can make recommendations about criminal prosecutions, they do not have the power to formally charge Bolsonaro. The country’s top federal prosecutor, Paulo Gonet, must now decide whether to pursue charges against Bolsonaro and compel him to stand trial before the nation’s Supreme Court.
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