Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro accused of attempted coup after his 2022 election loss

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 that Bolsonaro lost.

In a statement from Brazil’s federal police, 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 that swept the capital of Brasilia in January 2023, just a week after his rival and now President Luiz Inacio 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 office of the prosecutor general will decide whether to press charges against Bolsonaro and any former aides implicated.

Senior members of Bolsonaro’s government were named by police, including his 2022 running mate, retired General Walter Braga Netto, who was defense minister, and retired General Augusto Heleno, who was national security adviser.

Bolsonaro never recognized his October 2022 electoral defeat 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.