By Ricardo Brito
BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazil’s Federal Police will present on Thursday a formal accusation against former President Jair Bolsonaro in their investigation of an alleged coup conspiracy after he lost the 2022 election, police sources said.
The formal police accusations would be a fresh blow to Bolsonaro’s plans to run for president in 2026. This month’s victory of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump buoyed Bolsonaro allies trying to overturn a court decision blocking him from public office for attacking the legitimacy of the 2022 vote.
The final police report will cap nearly two years of speculation about Bolsonaro’s role in the election-denying movement that culminated in riots by his supporters that swept the capital Brasilia in January 2023, just a week after his rival President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office. Many protesters said they wanted to create chaos to justify a military coup.
Once police present their report to Brazil’s Supreme Court, the office of the prosecutor general will decide if and when to press charges against Bolsonaro and any former aides implicated.
Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing and called the investigation a political prosecution.
The police investigation will point to Bolsonaro as a key player in the conspiracy and seek to hold him criminally responsible for an attempt to violently overthrow democratic rule, one police source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The source said senior members of Bolsonaro’s government will be implicated, including his 2022 running mate, retired General Walter Braga Netto, who was defense minister, and retired General Augusto Heleno, who was national security adviser, along with some 40 other suspects.
Braga Netto and Heleno have denied any wrongdoing.
Police on Tuesday arrested five people, including a former member of Bolsonaro’s cabinet, suspected of involvement in a plot that included assassinating Lula, then president-elect, just days before he took office.
Earlier this year, federal police concluded separate criminal probes of Bolsonaro and his associates, formally accusing them of tampering with COVID-19 vaccination cards while in office and of embezzling jewelry gifted by the Saudi government. He denied wrongdoing in both cases.
(Reporting by Ricardo BritoWriting by Anthony Boadle and Manuela AndreoniEditing by Brad Haynes and Rosalba O’Brien)
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