Bolsonaro whips up protest over coup charges in Brazil

Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro rallied thousands of people on Sunday to a demonstration in Sao Paulo against charges levied by the Supreme Court that he plotted a coup.

- Agence France-Presse

SAO PAULO:

"What these guys really want isn't to lock me up, they want to kill me, because I'm a thorn in their throat," Bolsonaro said of the judges, who he has accused of persecuting him.

The far-Right leader's rally brought out around 45,000 people to the financial centre's prestigious Paulista Avenue, according to a count by the University of Sao Paolo, many of them wearing the national football strip adopted by his supporters.

Street vendors were offering items including masks of US President Donald Trump, bibles and flags of Israel and the United States, whose current governments Bolsonaro frequently praises.