Brazil’s former President Bolsonaro charged over alleged coup that included a plan to poison Lula

Brazil’s prosecutor-general said Tuesday that former leader Jair Bolsonaro knew and agreed to a plan to poison his successor and current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as part of an attempt coup to remain in power.

Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet formally charged Bolsonaro for attempting a coup to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat. He said that the plan also aimed at shooting dead Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a foe of the former president.

Gonet alleges that Bolsonaro and 33 others participated in the plan to remain in power despite losing to current President Lula.

“The members of the criminal organisation structured at the presidential palace a plan to attack institutions, aiming to bring down the system of the powers and the democratic order, which received the sinister name of ‘Green and Yellow Dagger,’" Gonet said in the report. “The plan was conceived and taken to the knowledge of the president, and he agreed to it.”

Last November, Federal Police filed a 884-page report with Gonet detailing the scheme. They allege it involved systematically sowing distrust of the electoral system among the populace, drafting a decree to give the plot a veneer of legality, pressuring top military brass to go along with the plan, and inciting a riot in the capital.

The Supreme Court will analyse the charges and, if accepted, Bolsonaro will stand trial.

The far-right leader denies wrongdoing. “I have no concerns about the accusations, zero,” Bolsonaro told journalists earlier on Tuesday during a visit to the Senate in Brasilia.

“Have you seen the coup decree, by any chance? You haven’t. Neither have I,” he added.

Bolsonaro's defence team said it met the accusations with “dismay and indignation," adding in a statement that the former “President has never agreed to any movement aimed at deconstructing the democratic rule of law or the institutions that underpin it.”

Bolsonaro's son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who is a senator, said on the social platform X that the indictment was “empty” and there was no evidence of wrongdoing. He accused the Prosecutor-General's Office of serving “the nefarious interests of Lula."

The crimes have varying penalties. If Bolsonaro is convicted of attempting a coup and the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, according to the country’s criminal code.

The indictments, based on manuscripts, digital files, spreadsheets, and message exchanges, expose a scheme to disrupt democratic order, according to the prosecutor-general’s office.

The charges are “historic,” said Luis Henrique Machado, a criminal attorney and professor at the IDP university in Brasilia, adding that he expects the Supreme Court to accept the charges and put Bolsonaro on trial sometime before the end of next year.