Former President Jair Bolsonaro could face criminal charges over accusations that he was involved in plans to stage a coup after losing the 2022 elections.
The Brazilian authorities announced on Thursday that they were recommending criminal charges against former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro over his role in a broad plot to cling to power after he lost the 2022 presidential election.
The accusations sharply escalate Mr. Bolsonaro’s legal troubles and highlight the extent of what the authorities have called an organized attempt to subvert Brazil’s democracy. After Mr. Bolsonaro narrowly lost to the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist, he refused to acknowledge defeat but left office anyway.
Brazil’s federal police urged prosecutors to charge Mr. Bolsonaro and three dozen others, including members of his inner circle, for the crimes of “violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état and criminal organization.”
The police did not provide any specifics about Mr. Bolsonaro’s actions that led to their recommendations.
The charges are the culmination of a sweeping two-year investigation in which police raided homes and offices, arrested senior aides to Mr. Bolsonaro and secured confessions and plea deals with people involved in the plot.
The announcement comes two days after four members of an elite military unit, including a former top aide to Mr. Bolsonaro, were arrested and accused of planning to assassinate Mr. Lula shortly before he took office in January 2023.
The police have already recommended criminal charges against Mr. Bolsonaro in two separate cases: an effort to falsify his Covid-19 vaccination records and a plot to embezzle jewelry that he received as gifts from foreign leaders while in office.
Federal prosecutors have still not decided whether to pursue charges in any of these cases. If they do, it will be the first time Mr. Bolsonaro faces criminal charges.
The authorities said that Mr. Bolsonaro, along with dozens of close aides, ministers and military leaders, had participated in a plan to reverse the results of the elections and prevent Mr. Lula from taking office in January 2023.
Earlier this year, the police said there was evidence that Mr. Bolsonaro had overseen a broad conspiracy to hold on to power, including planning the arrest of a Supreme Court judge, personally editing a draft decree aimed at overturning the election results and presenting coup plans to top military leaders, seeking their support.
Efforts to keep Mr. Bolsonaro in office also included spreading disinformation about voter fraud, drafting legal arguments for new elections, surveilling judges and encouraging and guiding protesters who eventually raided government buildings, police said at the time.
Mr. Bolsonaro’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, calling the investigation political persecution.
Although the police in Brazil can make recommendations about criminal prosecutions, they do not have the power to formally charge Mr. Bolsonaro. The country’s top federal prosecutor, Paulo Gonet, must now decide whether to pursue charges against Mr. Bolsonaro and compel him to stand trial before the nation’s Supreme Court.
More than a year before Brazil’s 2022 elections, Mr. Bolsonaro began loudly sowing baseless doubts about the security of the nation’s voting machines, warning that he could be defeated only if they were rigged in his opponent’s favor.
When Mr. Bolsonaro narrowly lost the vote, he declined to formally concede. His supporters soon set up camps outside military headquarters, calling on the military to overturn an election that they claimed had been stolen from Mr. Bolsonaro.
Then, in an episode reminiscent of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, they invaded and vandalized Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices just days after Mr. Lula took office, hoping to provoke a military intervention.
The episode alarmed many in Brazil, a country that was ruled by a brutal military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985.
In June, Brazil’s electoral court barred Mr. Bolsonaro running for office until 2030, ruling that he had violated the law when he summoned diplomats to the presidential palace and made baseless claims that the nation’s voting systems were likely rigged against him.
