Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro has denied his involvement in an alleged plot to overthrow the nation’s present president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Talking for the primary time in court docket, Bolsonaro, who dominated the nation between 2019 and 2022, stated a coup was an “abominable factor” and there was “by no means even a risk of a coup in my authorities”.
Together with seven “co-conspirators”, the 70-year-old is standing trial over the occasions which led as much as the storming of presidency buildings by his supporters on 8 January 2023, every week after Lula’s inauguration.
The previous president may face a long time in jail if he’s convicted. He has at all times denied the costs in opposition to him.
Questioned by Choose Alexandre de Moraes in court docket on Tuesday in regards to the alleged cost of plotting a coup, Bolsonaro stated the cost “doesn’t maintain, your Excellency”.
Talking later, he stated: “I solely have one factor to affirm to your excellency: on my half, on the a part of navy commanders, there has by no means been speak of a coup. A coup is an abominable factor.”
“Brazil could not undergo an expertise like that. And there was by no means even the potential of a coup in my authorities,” he added.
Bolsonaro narrowly misplaced the presidential election to Lula in 2022.
Following Lula’s victory, Bolsonaro ramped up false claims that there had been faults with digital voting machines within the run-up to the election.
The prosecution alleged Bolsonaro’s claims of voter fraud began as early as 2021 as a pretext that might be used to query a attainable defeat within the 2022 election.
Responding in court docket, Bolsonaro stated he wasn’t the one one that distrusts digital voter machines and stated he had acted throughout the guidelines of the structure.
“Many instances I rebelled, I swear. However, in my view, I did what needed to be performed,” he informed the court docket on Tuesday.
Bolsonaro is the sixth defendant to take the stand because the trial began in Could.
The eight defendants are accused of 5 expenses, which embody making an attempt to stage a coup, involvement in an armed legal organisation, tried violent abolition of the democratic rule of legislation, aggravated injury and deterioration of listed heritage.
Most have up to now denied the costs in opposition to them.
Bolsonaro, a former military captain and admirer of US President Donald Trump, ruled Brazil from January 2019 to December 2022.
He narrowly misplaced a presidential election run-off in October 2022 to his left-wing rival, Lula.
Bolsonaro by no means publicly acknowledged his defeat. Lots of his supporters spent weeks tenting exterior military barracks in an try and persuade the navy to stop Lula from being sworn in as president as scheduled on 1 January 2023.
Every week after Lula’s inauguration, on 8 January 2023, 1000’s of Bolsonaro supporters stormed authorities buildings within the capital, Brasilia, in what federal investigators say was an tried coup.
Bolsonaro was in the USA on the time and has at all times denied any hyperlinks to the rioters.
He has already been barred from operating for public workplace till 2030 for falsely claiming that Brazil’s voting system was weak to fraud, however he has declared his intention to combat that ban in order that he can run for a second time period in 2026.
