The first of five Supreme Court justices who will decide the fate of the former Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has found the ex-leader guilty of plotting a coup.
But Bolsonaro will only be convicted if at least three out of the five justices find him guilty.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes said there was “no doubt” that there had been a coup attempt after Bolsonaro lost the 2022 presidential election to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Moraes also said that Bolsonaro had led the “criminal organisation” which he alleged was behind the attempted coup. Bolsonaro has denied all the charges.
If convicted, Bolsonaro – who governed Brazil from January 2019 to December 2022 – could face a lengthy sentence of more than 40 years in prison.
Read: What you need to know about Bolsonaro’s coup plot trial
The charges against Bolsonaro are extremely serious and Justice Moraes – who had been widely expected to convict Bolsonaro – did not hold back in the summary of his decision.
The former president and his seven co-defendants – some of whom are top military officers – stand accused of trying to prevent President-elect Lula from taking up office.
The seven co-defendants have also denied the charges.
Speaking in court on Tuesday, Justice Moraes said there was plenty of evidence of a plot to kill Lula, his vice-presidential running mate, and Justice Moraes himself.
Moraes showed a document detailing the plan, codenamed Operation Green and Yellow Dagger, with key sections highlighted.
“This was written in the Brazilian government headquarters, at the same time that President Jair Bolsonaro was there,” he said. He added that part of the plan had been printed out in the presidential palace.
According to investigators, the defendants failed to enlist enough support from the military for the plan to go ahead.
But Moraes argued that the defendants’ efforts culminated in the storming of Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace by thousands of Bolsonaro supporters on 8 January 2023 – one week after Lula was sworn into office.
Order was quickly restored and more than 1,500 people were arrested.
But, according to Moraes, Brazil had come close to descending into authoritarianism: “We are slowly forgetting that Brazil almost returned to its 20-year dictatorship because a criminal organisation, comprised of a political group, doesn’t know how to lose elections.”
“There is no doubt that the defendant, Jair Bolsonaro, held meetings with Armed Forces commanders to discuss the breach of constitutional norms,” Moraes said.
The ex-president was not in court when Justice Moraes announced his guilty vote.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers said their client was suffering from health problems. The 70-year-old was stabbed in the stomach while on the campaign trail in 2018 and has been having recurrent health issues resulting from the incident ever since.
His lawyers said that he followed the proceedings from his home in Brasília, where he is being kept under house arrest.
Because he is currently banned from using social media, we have not heard from him during the verdict stage of this trial but he has in the past said that the trial was politically motivated.
The former president alleges that it is designed to prevent him from standing in the 2026 presidential election.
However, he is already banned from running for public office until 2030 for spreading unfounded rumours about Brazil’s voting system.
The trial has deepened divisions in Brazil, with supporters of Bolsonaro alleging that the five-member panel tasked with the case is biased.
They point to the fact that one of the justices was President Lula’s personal lawyer while another served as Lula’s justice minister.
Critics of Bolsonaro, on the other hand, say that Brazil’s institutions need to act decisively when under attack. They point to the fact that democracy was only restored in 1985 after two decades of military rule to underpin their argument.
