Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president, was charged Tuesday with overseeing a vast scheme to hold on to power after he lost the 2022 election, including one plot to annul the vote, disband courts and empower the military, and another to assassinate the nation’s president-elect.
The accusations, laid out in a 272-page indictment, suggested that Brazil came strikingly close to plunging back into, in effect, a military dictatorship nearly four decades into its modern democracy.
Brazil’s attorney general, Paulo Gonet Branco, indicted Mr. Bolsonaro and 33 other people, including a former spy chief, defense minister and national security adviser, accusing them of a series of crimes against Brazil’s democracy. The charges essentially adopted recommendations from Brazil’s federal police made in November.
The case will now go before Brazil’s Supreme Court, which will decide whether to order Mr. Bolsonaro’s arrest and have him face trial. If convicted, he could face 12 to 40 years in prison, according to the indictment, though political analysts expect any sentence to be shorter.
In an interview last month, Mr. Bolsonaro denied accusations that he planned a coup, saying he had legally questioned a flawed election system and explored ways in the Constitution to remedy what he saw as a dubious result. His lawyer had no immediate comment on Tuesday.
The charges are the latest chapter in a yearslong saga for Brazil that has included Mr. Bolsonaro’s discrediting of the nation’s voting systems, a tense election in which Mr. Bolsonaro never fully accepted defeat, an invasion of Brazil’s halls of power by Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters and a high-profile investigation that has left Mr. Bolsonaro’s running mate in jail since December.
Now Brazilians may witness a televised Supreme Court trial that could end up making Mr. Bolsonaro their third president in the past eight years to be sent to prison.
That would provide a striking contrast with the United States. Mr. Bolsonaro and President Trump — political allies who have long mirrored one another — have both now been indicted on charges of pushing to overturn elections. But Mr. Trump’s case was dropped as he returned to power, while Mr. Bolsonaro is at perhaps his weakest political point yet.
Brazil’s electoral court has already ruled that Mr. Bolsonaro is ineligible to run in Brazil’s presidential election next year. The attorney general is weighing two other criminal cases against him. And the Supreme Court justice set to oversee his coup case is arguably his political archrival.
While the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Trump was largely immune from prosecution for his actions as president, Brazil’s Supreme Court has acted aggressively against Mr. Bolsonaro and his right-wing movement.
The court has overseen investigations, ordered arrests and censored many of Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters on social media, arguing that the anti-democratic actions of his movement required an extraordinary response. Now the 11 high court justices could decide Mr. Bolsonaro’s fate.
“In a republic, all can be held accountable,” Mr. Gonet Branco wrote in a 17-page introduction attached to the indictment. “The president of the republic does not escape this rule.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Ju Faddul contributed reporting from São Paulo.
