Jair Bolsonaro denied in court on Tuesday that he was involved in a coup attempt after his election defeat in 2022. It was the first time the former president of Brazil appeared in court for the trial against him.
The right-wing populist Bolsonaro is suspected of wanting to overthrow his own election defeat 2.5 years ago. He lost to the current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Incited by Bolsonaro’s claims that the elections were illegitimate, thousands of supporters of the seventy-year-old politician stormed Brazilian government buildings, including Lula’s office. They wanted to prevent the newly elected president from actually taking power.
When the judge asked him about the allegations on Tuesday, Bolsonaro denied involvement.
The former president risks a prison sentence of up to forty years. He was previously found guilty of abuse of power and is therefore not allowed to participate in the elections until 2030.
The events in Brasilia in early 2023 are strongly reminiscent of the Capitol storming by supporters of Donald Trump two years earlier. However, the lawsuit against the American president was dropped when he returned to the White House earlier this year.