Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil, was one of 37 people the country’s federal police recommended for charges that include attempted coup d’état after the 2022 election, which Bolsonaro lost.
Federal police said in a statement that Bolsonaro and others are accused of violent abolition of the Democratic state of law, coup d’état and being a criminal organization.
The final police report caps nearly two years of speculation about Bolsonaro’s role in the election-denying movement that culminated in riots by his supporters who swept the capital, Brasilia, in January 2023, just a week after his rival, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, took office. Many protesters said they wanted to create chaos to justify a military coup.
Some of the alleged conspirators had a plan to assassinate Lula, police said.
Once police present their report to Brazil’s Supreme Court, the prosecutor general’s office will decide whether to press charges against Bolsonaro and any former aides who are implicated.
Police named senior members of Bolsonaro’s government, including his 2022 running mate, retired Gen. Walter Braga Netto, who was defense minister, and retired Gen. Augusto Heleno, who was national security adviser.
Bolsonaro never recognized his electoral defeat in October 2022, and he left Brazil days before Lula’s inauguration.
He eventually returned to Brazil and surrendered his passport to police investigating his role in the capital riots, when supporters stormed and vandalized the Supreme Court, Congress and the executive presidential palace.
