Bolsonaro's coup indictment postponed by Brazil's top prosecutor, sources say

By Ricardo Brito

Brazil's top public prosecutor is not likely to issue any indictments until next year for former President Jair Bolsonaro, members of his government and military officers who allegedly planned a coup after his 2022 election defeat, four sources told Reuters.

That is because General Prosecutor Paulo Gonet is planning to merge three Federal Police investigations into Bolsonaro's actions against Brazil's democratic system and produce one single global indictment against him, they said.

On Thursday, Federal Police formally accused Bolsonaro and 36 others of the crimes of attempted coup d'état, violent abolition of the democratic state of law and participation in a criminal organization. The 884-page report was handed to the Supreme Court, which will send it to Gonet next week.

Bolsonaro plotted to overturn his 2022 election defeat, along with dozens of ex-ministers and senior aides, including active duty military officers, in a conspiracy that included plans for assassinations, the police said.

The police report capped a nearly two-year investigation into Bolsonaro's role in the election-denying movement that culminated in riots by his supporters that swept Brasilia, the capital, in January 2023, just a week after his rival, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, took office.

Gonet is expected to take time to carefully analyze the documents of the three investigations that propose indicting dozens of people.

"Gonet is very technical. In addition to the investigation itself, there is all the legal basis for the indictments to be analyzed. This will take time," a source with knowledge of the situation said.

Another source close to the prosecutor said the criminal indictments should come down "all at once" and that it would be a solid case.

A fourth source at the prosecutor's office, known as the PGR in Portuguese, said he expects that to happen only in 2025.

Federal police finished two separate criminal probes of Bolsonaro and his associates earlier this year formally accusing them of tampering with COVID-19 vaccination cards while in office and of embezzling jewelry gifted by the Saudi government.

Brazilian court cases can take years to reach final judgment and even then they are subject to appeals and reversals.

Even as his legal woes have mounted, Bolsonaro remains the central figure of a right-wing movement driving Brazilian politics for the past six years. His party is the largest in the lower house of Congress and made strides in municipal elections last month.