The trial of former Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro has begun in the country’s Supreme Court. Bolsonaro, who held office from 2019 to 2023, is charged with plotting a coup d’etat to overturn the result of the October 2022 election, in which he lost to the current incumbent, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. 

Bolsonaro has so far denied the allegations and has claimed throughout that he is a victim of “political persecution.” The 70-year-old far-right leader could face up to 40 years in prison if convicted.

On January 8, 2023, his supporters stormed Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court, and the presidential palace in Brasília, urging the military to seize power. Demonstrations demanding military intervention — ranging from road blockades to encampments outside army barracks — had erupted almost immediately after Lula’s election victory in October 2022, fuelled by baseless claims of electoral fraud and a refusal among some Bolsonaro loyalists to accept the results.

Seven close aides, including four former ministers, the former navy commander, and the head of Brazil’s intelligence services during his presidency are all on trial alongside Bolsonaro. Prosecutors allege that the plotters planned to declare a state of emergency, hold new elections and assassinate President Lula in the wake of the election results. 

A sweeping 900-page report by federal police outlines an elaborate plot that, according to prosecutors, unraveled in part because it failed to gain traction with the military’s top brass. Marco Antonio Freire Gomes, who served as army general under Bolsonaro was one of the first witnesses to testify on Monday. 

Freire Gomes said that he held a meeting with the former president before the inauguration of Lula, where a “state of siege” was discussed.

“I warned him [Bolsonaro] that he could have serious problems, with judicial implications,” the former general told the court.

Former Brazilian Air Force commander Carlos de Almeida Baptista Júnior, who is also testifying in the trial, has previously stated that Freire Gomes threatened to arrest the president if he tried to proceed with the coup attempt.

Investigators say the report sheds new light on the inner workings of the conspiracy, revealing the extent of its coordination, the political motivations behind it, and the decisive role the military ultimately played in bringing it to a halt.

In late 2024, Brazil’s federal police formally implicated 36 additional individuals in connection with the alleged coup plot, including Fernando Cerimedo, a right-wing digital strategist who gained prominence as part of Argentine President Javier Milei’s 2023 campaign team.

Cerimedo was accused of helping to disseminate disinformation aimed at undermining confidence in Brazil’s electoral system. Despite being named in the police inquiry, he was not among those ultimately charged. 

Bolsonaro is already banned from seeking office until 2030, after his criticism of Brazil’s electronic voting system in the 2022 vote. He served as the 38th president of Brazil and was nicknamed the “Trump of the Tropics” by western media organizations due to his alignment with United States President Donald Trump. He has also held multiple meetings with Argentina’s Milei in 2023 and 2024, and appeared via video conference at CPAC Argentina — a summit of far-right political leaders and thinkers  — in Buenos Aires last year.

This is the first time a Brazilian president has faced coup charges since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985.