Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet alleges that Bolsonaro and 33 others participated in a plan to remain in power. The alleged plot also included a plan to poison Lula and shoot dead Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a foe of the former president.
Brazil's prosecutor-general Paulo Gonet on Tuesday formally charged former president Jair Bolsonaro with attempting a coup to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat, in a plot that also included a plan to poison his successor and current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet alleges that Bolsonaro and 33 others participated in a plan to remain in power. The alleged plot also included a plan to poison Lula and shoot dead Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a foe of the former president.
"The members of the criminal organization structured at the presidential palace a plan to attack institutions, aiming to bring down the system of the powers and the democratic order, which received the sinister name of 'Green and Yellow Dagger'," Gonet wrote in a 272-page indictment. "The plan was conceived and taken to the knowledge of the president, and he agreed to it."
In November, Brazil's Federal Police filed an 884-page report with Gonet detailing the scheme. They allege a systematic effort to sow distrust in the electoral system, drafting a decree to provide legal cover for the plot, pressuring top military brass to go along with the plan and inciting a riot in the capital.
The Supreme Court will analyse the charges and, if accepted, Bolsonaro will stand trial.
The far-right leader denies wrongdoing. "I have no concerns about the accusations, zero," Bolsonaro told journalists earlier on Tuesday during a visit to the Senate in Brasilia.
"Have you seen the coup decree, by any chance? You haven't. Neither have I," he added.
A lawyer for Bolsonaro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As well as participating in a coup d'etat, the 34 defendants are accused of participating in an armed criminal organisation, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, damage qualified by violence and serious threat against the state's assets, and deterioration of listed heritage, according to a statement from the prosecutor general's press office.
Gonet said the criminal organisation he charged "had as leaders the (then) president himself and his running mate, Gen Braga Netto".
"Both accepted, stimulated, and performed acts that are described in our criminal legislation as attacking the existence and the Independence of (the branches) of power and of the democratic rule," Gonet wrote in his report.