A judge in Brazilian ex-president Jair Bolsonaro’s coup trial voted on Tuesday to convict him, with four others yet to give their verdicts in a case that has angered the right-winger’s US ally Donald Trump.
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Bolsonaro, 70, risks a prison term of over 40 years if at least three of the five judges find him guilty of seeking to claw back power after his defeat in 2022 elections to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the first to cast his vote in proceedings that could last until Friday, said: “Brazil nearly returned to dictatorship” after 40 years of democracy.
He said the evidence showed the accused were “part of a criminal organisation led by Jair Messias Bolsonaro” and had in fact “committed all the criminal offences charged by the Attorney General”.
The former head of state, who claims he is the victim of political persecution, is in the dock on five charges with seven co-defendants that include former ministers and generals.
After Moraes, four more judges will vote one by one in a public session on whether they find Bolsonaro guilty or not, with deliberations in between. Each judge will explain their decision, and the process allows for them to change their vote.