Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro and dozens of ex-ministers and senior aides have been indicted by a court on charges of attempting a coup to keep him in office after his defeat in the 2022 elections.
It follows a two-year investigation into Mr Bolsonaro’s role in the election-denying movement that culminated in riots by his supporters that swept the capital Brasilia in January 2023.
The findings were to be delivered on Thursday to Brazil's Supreme Court to be referred to prosecutor-general Paulo Gonet, who will decide whether to press charges.
Responding to the decision, Mr Bolsonaro told the website Metropoles that he was waiting for his lawyer to review the indictment, reportedly about 700 pages long.
But he said he would fight the case and dismissed the investigation as being the result of “creativity.”
A total of 37 people have been indicted, including Gen. Walter Braga Netto, who was Mr Bolsonaro’s running mate in the 2022 campaign and former Army commander Gen. Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira.
Mr Bolsonaro has denied claims he tried to stay in office after his electoral defeat in 2022 to his rival, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The decision is a fresh blow to Mr Bolsonaro’s plan to run for president in 2026.
Police on Tuesday arrested five people suspected of involvement in the assassination plot targeting Lula, then president-elect, and his running mate Geraldo Alckmin, days before they took office.
Other investigations focus on Bolsonaro’s potential roles in smuggling diamond jewellery into Brazil without properly declaring them, and in directing a subordinate to falsify his and others' Covid-19 vaccination statuses.
Mr Bolsonaro has denied any involvement in either.
