Lawyers who represent the former President Jair Bolsonaro I have informed a body of five judges on the Brazil’s Supreme Court that his client was refused a fair hearing for charges.
A judgment in this case is expected within a few days. But on Wednesday, Bolsonaro’s defense team argued that something other than an acquittal would be a miscarriage of justice.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers also questioned whether the process had been hurried on the basis of political motives.
“We had no access to them, and much less had enough time to go through them,” lawyer Celso Vilardi told the Supreme Court.
Nevertheless, Vilardi informed the court that Bolsonaro “does not give a single insight into evidence with the linking of evidence” with the alleged conspiracy for the abolition of Brazil’s 2022 elections.
Tip over a choice?
In this election, Bolsonaro, the incumbent, was narrowly defeated in an outflow against Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the current president.
Bolsonaro, a former army captain and right -wing extremist leader, has never admitted his loss, and he and his allies are accused of causing unrest to stick to power.
The prosecutors presented evidence that indicated that Bolsonaro and his supporters were planning to explain a “state of siege” that would trigger military measures and a new election. An adjutant supposedly proposed the poisoning of Lula, its left rival.
Bolsonaro has contested any misconduct and deleted the process as a political hit.
He faces five charges, including the attempt to coup, the termination of democratic rule of law and participation in an armed criminal organization.
Two of the charges refer to the damage to property, which took place on January 8, 2023, when thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed government buildings in the capital Brasilia to protest against his defeat. Some rioters expressed that their goal was to intervene the military.
In November 2024, the federal police outlined the evidence in the case in one 884-page reportand in February Attorney General Paulo Gonet put on the charges.
Since then, the case has become an international spectacle, with world leaders like the US President Donald Trump weigh himself.
A high attempt
For some critics, the judgment will be a test by Brazil’s democracy, only four decades old.
For the supporters of Bolsonaro, however, the case is an example of the government’s efforts to censor right -wing votes. Trump, who views Bolsonaro as an ally, has laid 50 percent tariffs for Brazilian exports to the United States in protest against the public prosecutor’s office.
During the hearing on Wednesday, defender Paulo Cunha Bueno Bolsonaro’s process compared the illegal conviction of the officer of the Jewish Army Alfred Dreyfus, a case in France who had the international conviction.
“An acquittal is absolutely essential so that we don’t have our version of the Dreyfus -” told Cunha Bueno to the Supreme Court.
Bolsonaro itself is not Jewish. He was not available in the courtroom in the last few days, according to reports due to severe swallowing and other medical concerns that arise from a stab injury that he received on the campaign path in 2018.
In the last days of the court proceedings, however, his lawyers have tried to occupy doubts about the circumstances that underpinned the case.
They questioned a plea deal with one of the co -accused of Bolsonaro, Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, who is a witness today. And they pointed out that the attempt could have been rushed to avoid effects on the general elections in 2026.
Son is looking for amnesty for Bolsonaro
Outside of the court, Bolsonaro’s son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, has argued that the Supreme Court is against his father: a judiciary, Flavio Dino, was Lula’s former Minister of Justice, and another, Cristiano Zanin, was Lula’s lawyer.
Flavio Bolsonaro has also pointed out that he gathered support in Brazilian congress to say goodbye to an amnesty law that would protect his father and rioters from 2023.
“We will work for a broad, general and unlimited amnesty,” Flavio Bolsonaro told reporters on Tuesday.
Another of the ex-president’s sons, Eduardo Bolsonaro, has reportedly made repeated visits to Trump in the White House.
However, the Supreme Court rejected any claim of distortion. At the beginning of the hearing on Tuesday, judge Alexandre de Moraes said that the court would not bend to external pressure, including Trump.
“National sovereignty can, should and will never be slandered, negotiated or blackmailed,” said de Moraes.
Bolsonaro is in prison for up to 43 years of prison.
