Bolsonaro co-accused testifies about poll plot

Plans were afoot to ‘redo’ 2022 Brazil election, writes Ramon Samhkow

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Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro helped draft a plan to “redo the election” he narrowly lost in 2022, a co-accused testified in the former president's coup trial on Monday.

Prosecutors accuse the 70-year-old far-right leader, who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022, of having led a “criminal organisation” plotting to wrest power from leftist election victor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The plot failed, the charge sheet says, for a lack of military backing.

Mr Bolsonaro and six co-accused appeared in the Supreme Court on Monday to undergo questioning over several days. A seventh took part via videoconference from prison.

"They have nothing to convict me, my conscience is clear," the former leader told reporters during a break in the hearing.

UPBEAT ON CHANCES

Mr Bolsonaro wore a dark suit, instead of his typical T-shirt in the green and yellow colours of the Brazilian flag, and sat facing Alexandre De Moraes, one of the judges in the case and an arch-foe.

The ex-president listened intently, taking occasional notes, as his former right-hand man Mauro Cid - a co-defendant who has turned state’s witness - told the court Mr Bolsonaro had “received and read” a draft decree for the declaration of a state of emergency.