Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro plotted a coup to overturn the 2022 election along with dozens of ex-ministers and senior aides, federal police said in a formal accusation filed on Thursday with the country’s Supreme Court.
The final police report caps a nearly two-year investigation into Bolsonaro’s role in the election-denying movement that culminated in riots by his supporters that swept Brasilia, the capital, in January 2023, just a week after his rival President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office.
Many protesters at the time said they wanted to create chaos to justify a military coup, which they considered imminent. Earlier this week, police arrested five alleged conspirators suspected of planning to assassinate Lula before he took office.