Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at Brasilia airport in January. Photo: Evaristo Sa/AFP via Getty Images Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was charged Tuesday over an alleged coup plot to overturn his 2022 election loss and accused of being involved in plans to kill his rival, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The big picture: Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet's office made the allegations in announcing the charges against the populist leader, who has denied any wrongdoing in the case and accused investigators of political persecution.

Two years after thousands of his supporters attacked and desecrated the three pillars of Brazil’s federal government — the presidential palace, the supreme court and the congress — in protest of an electoral defeat that Bolsonaro had baselessly claimed could only come about through electoral fraud, the country’s attorney general accused him and 33 others in criminal filings of trying to abolish and overthrow the state, destruction of public property and participation in an armed criminal organization.

Brazil's prosecutor-general said Tuesday that former leader Jair Bolsonaro knew and agreed to a plan to poison his successor and current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as part of an attempted coup that would have allowed him to remain in power. Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet formally charged Bolsonaro for attempting a coup to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat. He said that the plan also aimed at shooting dead Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a foe of the former president. "The members of the criminal organization structured...

Brazil's former leader, Jair Bolsonaro, is formally charged with attempting a coup to stay in office after losing the 2022 election.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro knew and agreed to a plan to poison his successor and current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as part of an attempted coup, Brazil's Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet said Tuesday.

He formally charged Bolsonaro for attempting a coup to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat.

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