RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A panel of Brazil’s Supreme Court justices began proceedings Tuesday to determine whether former President Jair Bolsonaro and close allies will stand trial on five counts, including attempting to stage a coup.
Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet charged Bolsonaro last month with plotting a coup after he lost the 2022 election to his opponent and current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Part of that plan allegedly included poisoning Lula and killing Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a foe of Bolsonaro.
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Demonstrators hold signs that read in Portuguese "No amnesty" outside the Supreme Court where the trial of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro takes place in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
A street vendor shows a sculpture of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro holding a gun and his nation's flag outside the Supreme Court where Bolsonaro is on trial in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
A security agent stands near the statue of Lady Justice at the entrance of the Supreme Court before the start of the trial of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Security agents use a dog to sweep the Supreme Court building in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025, before the trial starts for Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Gates line the perimeter of the Supreme Court in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025, the day the trial of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro begins. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Celso Villares, center, and Fabio Wajngarten, right, lawyers for Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, arrive at the Supreme Court for his trial in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
A journalist, foreground, attends the trial of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, on the large screen behind, in an external area of the Supreme Court in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro speaks to the press as he arrives at the Brasilia International Airport in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis Nova)
Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro arrives at the Brasilia International Airport in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis Nova)
Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro speaks to the media as he arrives at the Brasilia International Airport in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis Nova)
FILE - Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro gestures to the crowd upon arriving at a rally in support of a proposed bill to grant amnesty to those arrested for storming government buildings in an alleged coup attempt in 2023, in Rio de Janeiro, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado, File)
FILE - Police stand on the other side of a window at Planalto Palace that was shattered by protesters, supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, after they stormed the official workplace of the president in Brasilia, Brazil, Jan. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
FILE - Lady Justice statue, depicting a seated, blindfolded woman holding a sword, stands outside the Supreme Court in Brasilia, Brazil, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
Five Supreme Court justices — including de Moraes, the rapporteur — opened proceedings around 9:45 a.m. (1245 GMT) in Brasilia to rule on the charges leveled by Gonet. If a majority votes in favor, the accused will become defendants in a criminal case.
Bolsonaro and his alleged accomplices also stand accused of participating in an armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, damage qualified by violence and a serious threat against the state’s assets, and deterioration of listed heritage.
The criminal organization was active between July 2021 and January 2023, de Moraes said at the beginning of proceedings Tuesday. He said the group's practices comprised of "a series of malicious acts aimed at abolishing the democratic rule of law and deposing the legitimately elected government.”
Gonet, who spoke after de Moraes and had 30 minutes to present his indictment of the accused, said that the group had sought to maintain Bolsonaro in power “at all costs."
“The criminal organization documented its project and during the investigations, manuscripts, digital files, spreadsheets and exchanges of messages were found,” Gonet said.
Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and says that he's being politically persecuted.
Local television network Globonews showed Bolsonaro arriving at the Supreme Court. Speaking earlier to journalists Tuesday morning at Brasilia's airport, Bolsonaro again denied the accusations.
“I'm fine. I always hope for justice. Nothing is substantiated in the accusations, made in a biased way, by the Federal Police,” Bolsonaro said, referring to the 884-page report filed in late November.
Under Brazilian law, a coup conviction alone carries a sentence of up to 12 years, but when combined with the other charges, it could result in a sentence of decades behind bars.
Observers say that it's likely that the charges will be accepted.
“There is no shadow of a doubt that there are very clear elements” that crimes were committed, said Thiago Bottino, a law professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think tank and university. “The current tendency is that there will be a criminal trial.”
Gonet filed charges against a total of 34 people in February. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will analyze whether to accept charges against eight of them. As well as Bolsonaro, the court will vote on the accusations faced by former Defense Ministers Walter Braga Netto and Paulo Sérgio Nogueira and ex-Justice Minister Anderson Torres, among others. The court will decide on the others' fates later on.
Bolsonaro has sought to shore up political support before the possible trial, including by holding a protest on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro on March 16.
Local media reported that around 18,000 people attended the rally, based on figures from a monitoring project linked to the University of Sao Paulo. Bolsonaro’s allies had hoped to draw a crowd of 1 million, which led some analysts to say that his ability to mobilize voters is diminishing.
Bolsonaro called on social media Sunday for a new demonstration on April 6, to be held on one of Sao Paulo’s main arteries, Avenida Paulista.
As with the protest earlier this month, the former president and his allies will push for Congress to grant amnesty to those in jail for their roles in the Jan. 8, 2023, riot, when Bolsonaro’s die-hard fans stormed and trashed the Supreme Court, Presidential Palace and Congress a week after Lula took office.
In his indictment of Bolsonaro and others linked to him, Gonet said that the rampage was a last-ditch attempt to hold onto power.
Bolsonaro was in the United States at the time, having left Brazil a few days before the end of his term.
Bolsonaro's lawyer Celso Vilardi on Tuesday denied Bolsonaro's involvement in the riot.
“It’s not possible to want to blame (him), making him out to be the leader of a criminal organization, when he didn’t take part in the January 8 affair,” Vilardi told the Court.
Bolsonaro, a former military officer who was known to express nostalgia for the country’s 1964-1985 dictatorship, openly defied Brazil’s judicial system during his 2019-2022 term in office.
He has already been banned by Brazil’s top electoral court from running in elections until 2030 over abuse of power while in office and casting unfounded doubts on the country’s electronic voting system.
Associated Press journalist Eduardo François contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Demonstrators hold signs that read in Portuguese "No amnesty" outside the Supreme Court where the trial of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro takes place in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
A street vendor shows a sculpture of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro holding a gun and his nation's flag outside the Supreme Court where Bolsonaro is on trial in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
A security agent stands near the statue of Lady Justice at the entrance of the Supreme Court before the start of the trial of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Security agents use a dog to sweep the Supreme Court building in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025, before the trial starts for Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Gates line the perimeter of the Supreme Court in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025, the day the trial of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro begins. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Celso Villares, center, and Fabio Wajngarten, right, lawyers for Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, arrive at the Supreme Court for his trial in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
A journalist, foreground, attends the trial of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, on the large screen behind, in an external area of the Supreme Court in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro speaks to the press as he arrives at the Brasilia International Airport in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis Nova)
Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro arrives at the Brasilia International Airport in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis Nova)
Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro speaks to the media as he arrives at the Brasilia International Airport in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis Nova)
FILE - Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro gestures to the crowd upon arriving at a rally in support of a proposed bill to grant amnesty to those arrested for storming government buildings in an alleged coup attempt in 2023, in Rio de Janeiro, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado, File)
FILE - Police stand on the other side of a window at Planalto Palace that was shattered by protesters, supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, after they stormed the official workplace of the president in Brasilia, Brazil, Jan. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
FILE - Lady Justice statue, depicting a seated, blindfolded woman holding a sword, stands outside the Supreme Court in Brasilia, Brazil, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
