Brazil’s former president Bolsonaro charged over alleged coup

Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Brazil’s prosecutor-general on Tuesday formally charged former president Jair Bolsonaro with attempting a coup to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat, in a plot that included a plan to poison his successor and current president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and kill a Supreme Court judge.

Prosecutor-general Paulo Gonet alleges that Mr Bolsonaro and 33 others participated in a plan to remain in power. The alleged plot, he wrote, included a plan to poison Mr Lula and shoot dead Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes, a foe of the former president.