Sawt Falasteen - Bolsonaro headed 'criminal organization' to stay in power, court told

Bolsonaro was one of the leaders of a criminal enterprise to keep him in office "regardless of the outcome of 2022 elections" he lost to leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, top prosecutor Paulo Gonet told the Supreme Court in Brasilia.

Five judges of the court started weighing Tuesday whether to put 70-year-old Bolsonaro on trial for allegedly masterminding efforts to wrest power from Lula, who was sworn in as president on January 1, 2023 after beating Bolsonaro by a razor-thin margin.

The ex-army captain was charged in February with crimes including overseeing a "coup d'etat," the "attempted violent abolition of the democratic state of law" and "armed criminal organization."

He risks a sentence of about 40 years if convicted, but has insisted he is the victim of a political plot to exclude him from seeking election in 2026.

"This is the largest political-judicial persecution in the history of Brazil," Bolsonaro said in a statement Tuesday, shortly before taking a seat in the front row of the courtroom, flanked by his lawyers and facing the judges who will decide his fate.

"The referee has blown the whistle before the match even began," he added later on social media platform X.

The investigation that led to Bolsonaro being charged yielded a dossier of nearly 900 pages.

Dubbed the "Trump of the Tropics" after his political idol Donald Trump, Bolsonaro has been the target of multiple investigations since his turbulent years as president of Latin America's biggest democracy from 2019 to 2022.

Prosecutors say he was aware of a plot to seek a "correction" of the 2022 election outcome, and even plans to assassinate Lula, his deputy Geraldo Alckmin, and Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes -- an arch rival and one of the judges in the current case.

The alleged plot did not come to fruition due to a lack of support from the army high command, according to prosecutors.

- 'They will kill me' -

Investigations have also linked Bolsonaro to the disturbances of January 8, 2023, when thousands of his backers stormed the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court demanding the military oust Lula a week after his inauguration.

Bolsonaro was in the United States at the time, and denies any involvement.

The former president cannot be held responsible, his lawyer Celso Vilsardi told the court Tuesday, as he "did not participate" in the riots "on the contrary, he repudiated them."

Bolsonaro in a podcast Monday insisted "I am innocent," adding: "I have no doubt that in 30 days at the most, they will kill me," without specifying who he was talking about.

Bolsonaro has been disqualified from holding public office until 2030 for having sought to cast doubt on Brazil's electronic voting system, but is hopeful the ban will be overturned.

"For the moment, I am a candidate" for elections in 2026, he declared this month.

The former president has compared his situation to that of Trump, who returned to the White House this year despite his own legal troubles, and after a similar storming of the US Capitol by his own supporters in January 2021.

In an interview with the Financial Times, published Tuesday, Bolsonaro claimed Brazil "needs support from abroad" as it had become "a real dictatorship."

Moraes and four other judges are considering whether there is enough evidence to try the ex-president and seven alleged core co-conspirators, including former ministers and a navy commander.

There are 34 accused in total.

Security at the Supreme Court in Brasilia had been beefed up for the first day of the hearing, broadcast live.

A decision could come Tuesday or Wednesday, the court has said.

B.Mahmoud--SF-PST