Ex-army chief testifies in Brazil coup trial

General says Bolsonaro mulled ‘state of siege’ after loss, writes Ramon Sahmkow

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A former army commander told Brazil's Supreme Court on Monday he had attended ameeting with Jair Bolsonaro where a “state of siege” was discussed as a possible means of overturning the far-right ex-president's election defeat.

General Marco Antonio Freire Gomes, who was army commander under Mr Bolsonaro, was one of the first witnesses to testify in an initial phase of the long-anticipated trial of Mr Bolsonaro on coup charges.

After leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's election victory in 2022, but before he was inaugurated as president in January 2023, Gen Gomes said he took part in a meeting with Mr Bolsonaro where the possibility of declaring a “state of siege” was discussed.

“1 warned him [Bolsonaro] that he could have serious problems, with judicial implications,” the general said of that discussion.

Mr Bolsonaro, 70, is accused of having conspired to hold on to power regardless of the outcome of the 2022 election, which he narrowly lost to Mr Lula.

If found guilty, he risks a sentence of up to 40 years in prison, and political banishment.