Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The Associated Press reports:
Brazil’s prosecutor-general on Tuesday formally charged former President Jair Bolsonaro with attempting a coup to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat, in a plot that included a plan to poison his successor and current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and kill a Supreme Court judge.
Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet alleges that Bolsonaro and 33 others participated in a plan to remain in power. The alleged plot, he wrote, included a plan to poison Lula and shoot dead Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a foe of the former president.
“The members of the criminal organization structured a plan at the presidential palace to attack institutions, aiming to bring down the system of the powers and the democratic order, which received the sinister name of ‘Green and Yellow Dagger,’” Gonet wrote in a 272-page indictment. “The plan was conceived and taken to the knowledge of the president, and he agreed to it.”
The New York Times reports:
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 a statement, Mr. Bolsonaro, 69, called the indictment “the weaponization of the justice system” and compared himself to President Trump, a political ally he often emulates.
The accusations are “nothing more than a desperate attempt to criminalize my political movement, silence millions of Brazilians and rig the next election before a single vote is cast,” Mr. Bolsonaro said, adding that he had handed over power peacefully. “This is the same failed strategy that was used against President Trump.”
Last month Bolsonaro was denied permission to leave Brazil to attend Trump’s inauguration after presenting the court with an invitation reportedly written by then-Trump inauguration committee co-chairs Steve Witkoff and Kelly Loeffler.