Latin America

muriel_volestrangler

(104,641 posts) Tue Sep 9, 2025, 03:22 PM Tuesday

Pressure mounts on Bolsonaro as first of five judges finds him guilty

The first of five Supreme Court justices who will decide the fate of the former Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has found the ex-leader guilty of plotting a coup.

But Bolsonaro will only be convicted if at least three out of the five justices find him guilty.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes said there was "no doubt" that there had been a coup attempt after Bolsonaro lost the 2022 presidential election to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Moraes also said that Bolsonaro had led the "criminal organisation" which he alleged was behind the attempted coup. Bolsonaro has denied all the charges.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ceq2lv20rp4o

4 replies

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Highlight:

Pressure mounts on Bolsonaro as first of five judges finds him guilty (Original Post) muriel_volestrangler Tuesday OP

And a second: muriel_volestrangler Tuesday #1

Damn - Fux fucks us: Brazil Supreme Court justice breaks with colleagues on Bolsonaro case, votes to annul muriel_volestrangler Wednesday #2

Thursday: Brazil's former president Bolsonaro found guilty of coup plot Judi Lynn Thursday #3

Brazil's Bolsonaro guilty of coup charges, court majority decides in landmark trial Judi Lynn Thursday #4

muriel_volestrangler

(104,641 posts)

1. And a second:

Reply to muriel_volestrangler (Original post)

Tue Sep 9, 2025, 07:08 PM

Tuesday

“The defendant, Jair Bolsonaro, was leader of this criminal structure,” the judge told a courtroom in the capital, Brasília, during a five-hour speech detailing what he called Bolsonaro’s “authoritarian project”.
...
“Brazil nearly went back to being a dictatorship … because a criminal organisation made up of a political group doesn’t know how to lose elections,” Moraes told the court. “Because a criminal organisation made up of a political group led by Jair Bolsonaro doesn’t understand that the alternation of power is a principle of republican democracy.”
...
Later in the day, a second judge, Flávio Dino, also voted for Bolsonaro and his alleged accomplices to be found guilty, although Dino argued that some of the defendants had higher levels of culpability than others. Bolsonaro’s level of guilt was “rather high”, the judge claimed, indicating he would support a tougher sentence for the former president.

Three more supreme court justices are due to cast their votes in the coming days, with Bolsonaro’s conviction widely considered a foregone conclusion. If found guilty of crimes including leading an armed criminal organisation and a coup d’etat and violently attempting to abolish Brazil’s democracy, the former president faces a sentence of up to 43 years. A verdict is expected by Thursday. While Bolsonaro has denied the charges, he has admitted seeking supposedly constitutional ways of remaining in power.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/09/brazil-jair-bolsonaro-trial

muriel_volestrangler

(104,641 posts)

2. Damn - Fux fucks us: Brazil Supreme Court justice breaks with colleagues on Bolsonaro case, votes to annul

Reply to muriel_volestrangler (Original post)

Wed Sep 10, 2025, 09:04 AM

Wednesday

BRASILIA, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Luiz Fux called on Wednesday for the annulment of the case against former President Jair Bolsonaro's due to what he called an "absolute lack of jurisdiction" for the five-judge panel hearing the case.

The high court still seems likely to convict Bolsonaro of plotting a coup to remain in power after he was voted out of office in 2022. Two judges have already voted to convict and the remaining two were appointed by leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who defeated Bolsonaro in the 2022 election.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-supreme-court-justice-breaks-with-colleagues-bolsonaro-case-votes-annul-2025-09-10/

Judi Lynn

(163,898 posts)

3. Thursday: Brazil's former president Bolsonaro found guilty of coup plot

Reply to muriel_volestrangler (Original post)

Thu Sep 11, 2025, 05:32 PM

Thursday

1 hour ago

Ione Wells South America correspondent in Brasília
and Vanessa Buschschlüter BBC News

SERGIO LIMA/AFP via Getty Images

The former President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has been found guilty of plotting a military coup.

Brazil's Supreme Court reached the majority of three votes needed to find him guilty. One judge voted to acquit him, and another is yet to vote.

The 70-year-old has been convicted of leading a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the 2022 election to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

While the plot failed to enlist enough support from the military to go ahead, it did culminate in the storming of government buildings by Bolsonaro's supporters on 8 January 2023, the justices found.

The charges carry heavy sentences and could add up to a prison term of more than 40 years. Sentencing is scheduled for Friday.

More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c147n38k800o

(They are omitting the fact Bolsonaro intended to have Lula da Silva assassinated. )

Judi Lynn

(163,898 posts)

4. Brazil's Bolsonaro guilty of coup charges, court majority decides in landmark trial

Reply to muriel_volestrangler (Original post)

Thu Sep 11, 2025, 05:42 PM

Thursday

By Ricardo Brito, Luciana Novaes Magalhaes and Manuela Andreoni
September 11, 20252:31 PM CDT Updated 2 hours ago

BRASILIA, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was convicted by a Supreme Court majority on Thursday of plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election, a powerful blow to the populist far-right movement he created.

The presumptive ruling by a majority of a panel of five justices in Brazil's Supreme Court makes Bolsonaro the first former president in the country's history to be convicted for attacking democracy.

"This criminal case is almost a meeting between Brazil and its past, its present, and its future," Justice Carmen Lucia said before she voted to convict Bolsonaro of attempting a coup, a reference to previous attempts to overthrow democracy in the country's history. There was ample evidence, she added, that Bolsonaro acted "with the purpose of eroding democracy and institutions."

. . .

The conviction of Bolsonaro, a former Army captain who never hid his admiration for the military dictatorship that killed hundreds of Brazilians between 1964 and 1985, echoes legal condemnations this year for far-right leaders elsewhere, including France's Marine Le Pen and the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte.

More:
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-bolsonaro-guilty-coup-charges-court-majority-decides-landmark-trial-2025-09-11/

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