Bolsonaro will be tried for leading the 2023 coup attempt in Brazil.

BarcelonaBrazil's Supreme Court has voted to open criminal proceedings against former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of leading the January 2023 coup attempt, a week after current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office. The five judges scheduled to deliberate on the matter voted unanimously to prosecute Bolsonaro and seven other defendants, including high-ranking military officials and former members of Bolsonaro's administration. The trial date has not yet been set, but it will take place in the First Chamber of the Supreme Court. If convicted, Bolsonaro could face a lengthy prison sentence.

The judge overseeing the case, Alejandro de Moraes, considers Bolsonaro's uprising to be the result of a "systematic effort" to discredit the elections he lost and then conspire to overturn the results with the use of violence and the help of senior military officers and members of the GABIB. The former Brazilian president, on the other hand, denies having tried to block Lula's inauguration and says he is the victim of "political persecution" aimed at preventing him from running for president in 2026. Shortly after the sentencing, Bolsonaro accused the judges of being "serious and unfounded." Coups "have troops, they have weapons, and they have leadership," he rebuked.

January 8, 2023 Bolsonaro supporters stormed the headquarters of the three federal powers in Brasilia, the country's capital, and called for a coup against the new government, in an episode that was reminiscent of the assault on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.

In November of last year, Brazil's federal police filed charges against the former president – accused of five crimes –, who is being investigated for an alleged coup attempt that sought to overthrow, and even assassinate, Lula da Silva, who won the 2022 election. tion of the riots, and now the Supreme Court has decided that the process should go ahead.

Taking advantage of Lula's low popularity, Bolsonaro had called a demonstration before the court hearing on the beach in Rio de Janeiro, with the intention of pressuring Congress to approve an amnesty bill that could absolve him and the other defendants. But the rally was considered a failure by local media, as between 20,000 and 30,000 people attended, when the organizers expected more than a million.

The case, however, has also put the Brazilian judiciary under scrutiny. Bolsonaro's defense team has accused investigators and the investigating judge of irregularities. Indeed, the former president's supporters accuse the Supreme Court of being biased because some of its members are very close to Lula.