BRASÍLIA: Brazil’s far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday denied any involvement in an alleged coup plot, as he took the stand for the first time in his high-stakes trial.
The 70-year-old is answering questions from lawyers and judges on his alleged role in a “criminal organization” that plotted to wrest power from leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who narrowly beat Bolsonaro at the ballot box in 2022.
The plot failed, the charge sheet says, for a lack of military backing.
Bolsonaro, a former army captain who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022, was the sixth of eight accused to take the stand for in-person questioning that started on Monday.
“That’s not the case, Your Honor,“ he replied when asked by Judge Alexandre de Moraes -- an arch political foe -- about “the truthfulness” of the accusations against him.
Bolsonaro and his co-accused risk prison sentences of up to 40 years.
On Monday, his former right-hand man Mauro Cid -- a co-defendant who has turned state’s witness -- told the court Bolsonaro had “received and read” a draft decree for the declaration of a state of emergency.
He then “edited” the document, which would have paved the way for measures to “redo the election” and also envisaged the imprisonment of officials including Moraes, said Cid.
The rest of the co-defendants interrogated so far rejected the bulk of the accusations in the charge sheet.
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