Sawt Falasteen - Brazil court deliberates Bolsonaro coup-plot verdict

Justice Cristiano Zanin opened the session in Brasilia. Bolsonaro, who has won vocal support from the US president and is under house arrest, was not expected to attend the hearing.

The 70-year-old former army officer faces a prison sentence of more than four decades if convicted of conspiring to cling onto power despite losing to leftist rival and current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro and seven co-defendants, including several former ministers and generals, should learn their fate by September 12.

A guilty verdict could scupper Bolsonaro's hopes of making a spectacular Trump-style comeback from a criminal conviction to the country's top job.

The US president has launched a highly unusual pressure campaign in support of the far-right leader, claiming that Bolsonaro has been unfairly persecuted.

It is the first trial of a former Brazilian president on coup charges.

- Democracy test or show trial? -

The case has deeply divided the country between those in favor, who view it as a test of the vitality of Brazil's democracy 40 years after the end of a military dictatorship, and those who see it as a political show trial.

Trump has denounced a "witch hunt" and imposed a 50-percent tariff on a variety of exports from Brazil, plunging relations between the two allies into crisis.

The US Treasury has also sanctioned the presiding judge and longtime Bolsonaro nemesis, Alexandre de Moraes.

Bolsonaro's supporters have welcomed Trump's attacks.

"Thanks to these measures, they (the accused) see that they are not alone, that there is someone above them who can make a difference," Carlos Sergio Alcantara, a businessman who took part in a Bolsonaro solidarity rally Sunday, told AFP.

Five justices are deliberating and a simple majority of three is needed for a guilty verdict.

Security has been stepped up around the Supreme Court in Brasilia ahead of the ruling.

On January 8, 2023, the court was one of three buildings, along with the presidential palace and parliament, that were stormed by Bolsonaro supporters calling for the military to depose Lula a week after his inauguration.

Bolsonaro was in the United States at the time but has been accused of instigating the unrest.

Prosecutors accuse him of leading a "criminal organization" that conspired to prevent Lula taking office, saying that his attacks on Brazil's electronic voting system months before the vote aimed to discredit the election.

They charge that, after his defeat, Bolsonaro planned to declare a state of emergency and call new elections but failed to win the support of the military top brass.

Prosecutors also allege that he knew of a plan to assassinate Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin and Moraes, which was later abandoned.

Bolsonaro denies all the charges and claims he is the victim of political persecution.

- Bid for amnesty -

On Tuesday, Moraes will start summarizing the evidence presented in the case, after which the prosecution and defense will present closing arguments.

The judges will vote next week to convict or acquit Bolsonaro and his co-accused before considering possible sentences.

If Bolsonaro is convicted on five charges and given the maximum sentence for each crime, he could be imprisoned for 43 years.

But he can appeal the verdict to a full chamber of the Supreme Court.

His allies believe his conviction to be a foregone conclusion and are counting on Congress to pass an amnesty law to save him from prison.

N.Shalabi--SF-PST