Bolsonaro denies carefully planning a Brazilian coup in Supreme Court testimony
Brasilia (Reuters) – French Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro denied that he led an attempt to overthrow the government after losing the 2022 election in the country's Supreme Court trial on Tuesday, but admitted to attending a meeting aimed at reversing the outcome.
Bolsonaro said he and senior aides discussed alternatives to accepting the election results, including the possibility of deploying the military and suspending some civil liberties, but he said the proposals were quickly revoked.
“This feeling is that we can't do anything about it. We have to swallow the election results,” the former president said.
“I have never violated the Constitution,” Bolsonaro added. A copy of the country's 1988 charter reestablished democracy after two decades of military rule.
In March, the Supreme Court agreed to hear cases against Bolsonaro and seven others, including several officers, who were charged with planning a coup to prevent Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva from taking office in January 2023.
The allegations stem from a two-year police investigation into the election negation campaign, which reached riots in the capital in early 2023 a week after Lula took office.
Bolsonaro, the sixth accused in the case, spent several minutes in two hours of testimony defending the achievements of the government and criticism of the country's electoral system.
The court has heard dozens of witnesses before, suggesting the case is developing rapidly and can end by the end of the year to avoid overlap with the 2026 presidential election campaign.
Bolsonaro insists that although the election court's ruling prevented him from seeking public office until 2030.
Bolsonaro attended the trial on Monday to watch Mauro Cid's testimony, his former assistant turned into a whistleblower and shook hands.
The former president reviewed a draft ordinance at the heart of the coup plot and made changes while retaining the arrest of Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is now responsible for overseeing the case of Bolsonaro and his allies.
On Tuesday, the former president said he had only seen the draft briefly and never edited it. He also apologized for the Supreme Court judges’ unfounded allegations of corruption.
“Forgive me,” he told Moras.
By October, a final ruling is expected to be made in Bolsonaro's case.
(Reported by Manuela Andreoni's Ricardo Britwriter; Edited by Brad Haynes and Bill Berkrot)
