Brazil's Bolsonaro takes the stand before the Supreme Court over alleged coup plot
Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro appeared before the Supreme Court for the first time Tuesday and denied participation in an alleged plot to remain in power and overturn the 2022 election result as he faces charges that could bring decades behind bars.
Many Brazilians followed the trial, which was streamed online. The country was shaken by the January 2023 riot in which the Supreme Court, Congress and presidential palace were ransacked.
The far-right politician, appearing relaxed, and seven allies were being questioned by a panel of judges over allegations they devised a scheme to keep Bolsonaro in office despite his loss to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
'There was never any talk of a coup. A coup is an abominable thing," Bolsonaro said. 'Brazil couldn't go through an experience like that. And there was never even the possibility of a coup in my government.'
The far-right politician admitted to discussing 'possibilities' with the heads of the armed forces following Lula's win, but within constitutional limits. He didn't give details.
Bolsonaro's questioning lasted just over two hours. At one point, he joked with Justice Alexandre de Moraes — whose planned killing was part of the plot, the prosecutor-general has alleged — a contrast to the sharp words Bolsonaro has aimed at the court in the past.
Bolsonaro could face decades in prison
The defendants are standing trial on five counts: attempting to stage a coup, involvement in an armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, aggravated damage and deterioration of listed heritage.
A coup conviction carries a sentence of up to 12 years. A conviction on that and other charges could bring decades behind bars.
The former president has repeatedly denied the allegations and asserted that he is the target of political persecution. When asked by de Moraes at the beginning of questioning whether the accusation was true, Bolsonaro replied, 'The accusation does not hold, your excellency.'
He said that even if he had wanted to impose a 'state of siege,' the measures would have been different. 'There was no environment for it, no opportunity. We didn't have even a minimally solid base to do anything,' he said.
The eight defendants are accused of making up the plan's core group. Justices are also questioning Bolsonaro's former running mate and defense minister Walter Braga Netto, former ministers Anderson Torres and Augusto Heleno and ex aide-de-camp Mauro Cid, among others.
Judges will hear from 26 other defendants at a later date. The court has already heard from dozens of witnesses in hearings that began in mid-May.
Cid, who has signed a plea bargain with the federal police, told the court on Monday that Bolsonaro read and edited a document that aimed at canceling the election result.
Cid also said Bolsonaro refused to interfere regarding camps that supporters set up in front of army facilities calling for a military intervention after the election loss.
Many of those followers were later part of the Jan. 8, 2023 riot. Police say their uprising — which occurred after Lula was sworn in — was an attempt to force military intervention and oust the new president.
Prosecutor: Riot part of scheme to overturn election results
Bolsonaro on Tuesday referred to supporters who were calling for a military intervention as 'crazy.'
Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet alleges the riot was part of a scheme to overturn the election result. Part of that plot allegedly included a plan to kill Lula and de Moraes. The plan did not go ahead at the last minute because the accused failed to get the army's commander on board, according to Gonet.
On Tuesday, Bolsonaro said he had learned about the plot, which received the sinister name of 'Green and Yellow Dagger,' when it was reported in the press.
'If it had been proposed, in my view, it would have been rejected, with immediate action taken,' he said.
Bolsonaro, a former military officer who was known to express nostalgia for the country's past dictatorship, openly defied Brazil's judicial system during his 2019-2022 term in office.
He has been banned by Brazil's top electoral court from running in elections until 2030 over abuse of power while in office and casting unfounded doubts on the country's electronic voting system.
A watershed trial
Thiago Bottino, a law professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think tank and university, called the trial historic.
'It's the first time we see people accused of an attempted coup are being subjected to a criminal trial, with the guarantees of due criminal process, being able to defend themselves but answering for these accusations,' he said.
The trial is particularly significant in light of the fact that Brazil's constitution was adopted in 1988, less than four decades ago, Bottino said.
Brazil is showing that it has 'the democratic maturity to be able to use due process to investigate this type of accusation and, if necessary, hold those responsible accountable,' he said.
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New Statesman
4 hours ago
- New Statesman
Do our politicians understand the supreme court's gender ruling?
Illustration by Gary Waters / Ikon Images It was ironic that Sarah Owen MP opened her public questioning of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) chair by telling the public that the Women and Equalities Committee prided itself on 'listening, understanding and challenging respectfully to find progress on the matters we hold dear'. Over the two-and-a-bit hours that followed, there was little respect shown and not much listening going on at all. The hostile tone was set from the start. What was Baroness Kishwer Falkner going to do to improve the damaged reputation and loss of public trust in the EHRC, Owen asked in the session on Wednesday (11 June). Falkner responded: 'it's a real pleasure to be here… I don't think I could agree with your characterisation of the EHRC, and I hope as the time goes on in the next two hours that I will be able to prove those sentiments with hard facts.' Then the facts came: rather than trust being damaged, Falkner argued, it had rocketed under her leadership from just 35 per cent of the public holding the EHRC in a positive light when she assumed her role in 2020 to 81 per cent now. The Women and Equalities Committee, of which Owen is chair, has regular sessions with the leaders of the EHRC. This particular meeting comes after the Supreme Court's judgment in April that sex in the Equality Act 2010 meant biological sex. Predictably the judgment and the EHRC's response to it dominated proceedings. But few MPs seemed to understand what the judgment actually meant, let alone what the law is. 'Please do not be fearful,' Baroness Falkner said, explaining that in spite of the ruling, trans people are still able to invoke the provisions on direct discrimination, harassment, and indirect discrimination. They had not lost any rights, she insisted, as had the Supreme Court justices. 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What has happened here is that a statute – the [Equality] Act has been interpreted by the highest court in the land, and it has been clarified. The rights remain extant as they always were when Parliament… passed the Equality Act.' Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe It took the Labour MP for North Warwickshire and Bedworth, Rachel Taylor, close to eight minutes to establish that it was not – under the law – possible to have a women's only walking club that included trans women. 'I think I'm clear on your answer that if I want to set up a women's walking association that excludes cis [non-trans] men, then I cannot include transgender women. Is that what you've said?' Falkner nodded in reply. During the exchange, Owen chimed in: 'How could you tell, and how could Rachel tell whether I was a cisgendered woman or whether I was a trans woman, can you tell Baroness Faulkner by looking at me?' 'I could make an informed judgment,' the EHRC chair replied. 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The clerk of the Women and Equalities Select Committee has responded almost immediately to those who have written to object, even taking the time to do so on a weekend. 'Thank you for writing to the Committee. The Committee notes your demands,' he said to one letter writer. 'The Committee expects to cover the concerns you raise when it meets with the EHRC next week,' he replied to another – something that appeared to have been borne out by the session with Baroness Falkner. In a further reply, the clerk pointed out that while 'select committees do not have power of veto in appointment hearings… if they really didn't like a candidate, a failure of the committee to support the appointment could make the government further reflect on whether to take it forwards.' To some, it might seem odd that anyone would object to Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson's candidature. 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If trans people accepted that the EHRC's job was to interpret the law of the land, then they will find the final code of practice is something they can trust, Falkner said. The session ended where it began, with Falkner civil, the chair, Sarah Owen otherwise. 'We're hoping that the settlement of this issue by the Supreme Court will lead to a calming down of the atmosphere,' Falkner said. Many share that hope. But committee hearings like this will certainly not help. [See more: Inside the SNP civil war] Related
The Herald Scotland
7 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
No more Edinburgh Book Festival for me – where did it all go wrong?
One other event at the book festival I recall, for different reasons, was a session with the writer Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. I can't remember why I went to see her now because she's the sort of harrumphing lefty who sets off my allergies, but perhaps I figured it's good to listen to a range of views, which it is. I certainly remember being irritated when she laid into Ukip as an English not a Scottish problem even though the party had just done well in Scotland at the European elections. The same sort of flawed reasoning persists now with Reform. But the audience seemed to like it. They applauded at the end, and shuffled out for tea and biscuits. I mention the Alibhai-Brown event in particular because even then, ten years ago, the problems with the Edinburgh Book Festival were starting to become obvious. The lack of diversity on the stage and in the audience, by which I particularly mean diversity of class. The weak, and sometimes execrable, chairing of events that fails to challenge or properly explore the writer's opinions and assumptions. And most important of all, the tendency to platform writers like Alibhai-Brown and unplatform or ignore writers of a different or more conservative persuasion. In the end, it meant the festival became a place I enjoyed less and less, and eventually I just stopped going. But, you know, it really is good to listen to a range of views and I'm a hopeful sort of person on the whole, so this year, like every year, I looked at the line-up on the festival website to see if there was something good and if things had changed, and I scrolled and scrolled and saw that the answer was no. Things appear to be just as bad as ever, worse in fact, and the worry is that the problems at the book festival may have started to rot it from the inside. You start to wonder: how long will it last? The most obvious symptom of the problems is the lack of diversity on stage, which is worse than ever. One of the biggest stories of the last year – and the focus of one of the biggest-selling books of the year – was the trans debate and the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of 'woman', and yet you will not find a trace of it on the festival line-up. The book in question, The Women Who Wouldn't Wheest, was edited by Susan Dalgety and Lucy Hunter Blackburn, so why haven't they been invited? Is it because – unlike one of the big guests of the festival Nicola Sturgeon – they are seen to be on the wrong side of the debate? Yes, of course it is. Read more The chairman of the festival, Alan Little, rather gave the game away when he said the festival should be 'a place where progressive and nuanced discussion can happen in a safe and respectful space'. He's spot on with nuanced – we need it badly – but why only progressive? Why not traditionalist or conservative as well? And what's with 'safe'? It's become one of those words certain activists use to ratchet up the pressure, to hystericalise, but would the festival be unsafe because the line-up included Susan Dalgety or Lucy Hunter Blackburn? The only thing that would be unsafe would be the consensus that's dominated the festival and still does. The organisers would probably say in their defence that there would be a threat of disruption from activists – indeed, that was reason they gave for dropping Baillie Gifford as one of their sponsors. A number of activists, you will remember, a very small number, demanded the investment company be dropped on the grounds it invests in fossil fuels and sad to say, the organisers caved. They said they could not be expected to deliver a festival that was safe – there's that word again – because there was a threat of disruption from activists and so they ended their relationship with Baillie Gifford but more importantly they ended their relationship with Baillie Gifford's money. But it didn't have to be that way. First of all, if everyone buckled as quickly as the festival did over the threat of disruption to the free expression of views, we'd be in a very unpleasant place indeed; their weakness is pathetic. They could also have borrowed some of the stoicism of the Fringe which faced similar pressure over Baillie Gifford from the same sort of activists, but stood firm and it all came to nothing. To put it another way, everyone was perfectly safe. The Edinburgh Book Festival (Image: Newsquest) The organisers of the book festival also appear to be guilty of a kind of economic and practical idiocy that now threatens their future. There are some people who object to corporate sponsorship of arts events – so what: the only alternative is an increase in public money and that ain't happenin'. Baillie Gifford also invests in fossil fuels – so what: it invests far more in clean energy, and the objections of the activists led to the cancellation of a million pounds in money for the arts. The danger here is that the arts world ends up, in the words of the director of the Science Museum Ian Blatchford, eaten alive by its own piety. And the risks are particularly high for book festivals aren't they? We saw what happened to Aye Write in Glasgow when it failed to get funding from Creative Scotland; it only went ahead after a donation from the charity set up by the Lottery winner Colin Weir. The Edinburgh book festival is also going ahead this year thanks largely to a donation from Ian Rankin. But how long before the activists start digging into the personal views of the philanthropists writing cheques? And is this what they want: the arts funded by a few wealthy individuals? It doesn't sound all that progressive to me. Better, I think, to try to build more robust festivals that have a chance of lasting and that must mean some changes. First, encourage a broad diversity of views and opinions at the festival that will attract a broader and more diverse audience. Secondly, drop the piety and encourage corporate sponsorship because public money is not coming to save you. And thirdly, be robust when the activists rock up and shout 'unsafe!' They only have power because you give it to them. Reject them. Ignore them. And carry on. Mark Smith is a Herald features writer and opinion writer
Daily Mail
15 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Music fan got on stage at concert to 'propose to girlfriend'...just hours later, he did something unspeakable
A scorned man is under arrest in Brazil following the murder of his former girlfriend, who refused to resume their relationship despite a public plea at a live concert. Adailton dos Santos attended musician Kelson Kizz's show as part of the Santo Antônio Festival in Santo Antônio, Paraibá on Wednesday and asked to make a marriage proposal to Vitória de Lima, 32, on the stage. Kelson Kizz obliged and stopped his show as dos Santos joined him in front of the band, video footage showed The singer appeared to be stunned when dos Santos changed his tune and whispered into his ear that what he really wanted to reconcile with de Lima. When Kelson Kizz how long they had been dating, dos Santos told him that they were separated for only a couple of days. 'Adailton mustered up the courage, it's today. He said she won't escape today,' Kelson Kizz said in the video. 'Santo Antônio, matchmaker, I hope you perform a miracle. Hello Vitória, where are you? I don't think she's coming.' They both waited around two minutes for de Lima, who failed to come to the stage, as a dejected dos Santos looked towards the crowd in shock. After the show, dos Santos returned to his home in town of Solânea, where de Lima also lived, and ambushed her when he saw her walking to her residence on Thursday at 4:36am, it is alleged. Authorities said Vitória de Lima (pictured) had broken up her relationship with Adailton dos Santos, her former boyfriend of two months, earlier during the week before she was ambushed by him and stabbed dead near her home Thursday Surveillance video showed De Lima attempted to run away from dos Santos before she fell with him to the ground and was stabbed, according to police. She was rushed to an area hospital, where she died from her injuries. A stunned Kelson Kizz took to his Instagram Story on Thursday in search of answers. 'This shocked me, I haven't slept since 7am, I haven't slept a wink, and somehow we end up feeling guilty, even though we know there was nothing we could have done,' he said. 'The guy went up, told the production team that it was a marriage proposal, and when he got to the front of the stage he said it was a reconciliation,' Kelson Kizz added. 'But he used the names of people from the victim's family, he knew the person's life in detail. We tried to smooth things over as best we could, but unfortunately he committed femicide.' Adailton dos Santos was seen on a surveillance video ambushing his former girlfriend, Vitôria de Lima, before he stabbed and killed her near her home in Santo Antônio, a city in the northeastern Brazilian state of Paraibá The Paraibá Military Police arrested dos Santos at the scene of the crime, which he returned to with a set of new clothes. He initially told officers that he was not involved and then confessed after the presented evidence linking him to de Lima's murder. Paraibá Military Police Diogenes Fernandes told Brazilian news outlet G1 that dos Santos and de Lima had dated for only two months before she called off the relationship earlier this week. 'In a cold manner, he goes to his residence, changes his shirt and returns to the scene of the crime in an attempt to simulate rescue for the victim,' Paraibá Military Police Diogenes Fernandes told Brazilian news outlet G1. 'He confessed to the crime, the murder weapon was seized and he was sent to the local public jail.'
