Brazil ex-president Bolsonaro denies plotting coup to stay in power

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has denied allegations of plotting a coup to stay in power after losing the 2022 election to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, media reports said. This came after, on June 30, the electoral justice system found Bolsonaro guilty of "abuses of power" during his campaign for a second term and banned him from seeking or holding public office for eight years.

Bolsonaro was questioned by the Federal Police for two hours regarding accusations made by Senator Marcos do Val. Bolsonaro stated that he had no relationship with the senator but admitted to meeting with him and former lawmaker Daniel Silveira in December 2022.

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However, Bolsonaro said that the meeting focused on political matters and not on conspiracies or coups. The former president also reaffirmed his commitment to the constitutional order and stated that he would never agree to such a plot.

Alleged plot

Senator Marcos do Val, who has given multiple conflicting accounts since February, claimed that Bolsonaro and Silveira encouraged him to arrange a meeting with Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who also presides over The Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the highest body of the Brazilian electoral justice.

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According to do Val, the plan involved secretly recording the conversation with de Moraes and inducing him to make biased statements in favour of Lula, which could then be used to invalidate the election and keep Bolsonaro in power. Bolsonaro, however, denied that the name of Alexandre de Moraes was mentioned during the December 8 meeting.

Investigation

De Moraes revealed that do Val informed him about the alleged plot in December but did not file a formal criminal complaint. De Moraes considered the accusations unofficial and dismissed them as "ridiculous."

“He told me that it was a question of ‘intelligence’ and that he could not confirm it. I just thanked him, because what is not official does not exist,” the judge said earlier in relation to the matter.

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However, after do Val made the allegations public, de Moraes ordered an investigation as part of a broader probe into the events of January 8, when Bolsonaro supporters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace in an attempt to incite a military coup against Lula.

Bolsonaro's statement to the Federal Police on Wednesday marked the fourth time he has been questioned since returning to Brazil from his trip to Florida before Lula's inauguration.

The investigations also involve allegations related to expensive jewellery he received from Saudi Arabia and failed to declare, as well as corruption and fraud linked to his administration's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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