Brazil top court to weigh whether Bolsonaro will stand trial

BRASILIA (Reuters) - A five-justice panel from Brazil's Supreme Court will begin deliberations on Tuesday to determine if former President Jair Bolsonaro and some of his closest aides should stand trial for allegedly attempting a coup after his 2022 electoral defeat.

By Wednesday, the judges are expected to decide whether to hear the charges filed last month against the former leader, accused of running a conspiracy to overthrow the government.

A ruling on the charges this week, if it happens, would represent extraordinary speed for a court long known for taking years to decide major cases. A criminal case involving dozens of politicians more than a decade ago took the Supreme Court months to accept charges after they were presented.

A swift decision on these charges would suggest the court "may conclude the trial before the end of the year," said Ivar Hartmann, a law professor at Sao Paulo business school Insper. That would avoid a ruling in the run-up to Brazil's next presidential election in late 2026.

Despite mounting legal challenges, Bolsonaro continues to assert his intention of running for office again. In 2023, a federal electoral court barred him from public office until 2030 for abusing his political power to discredit Brazil's voting system during the 2022 presidential campaign.

The attempted coup charges, filed by Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet last month, alleged that a group led by the former army captain "sought total control over the three branches of government."

Lawyers representing Bolsonaro have said he never supported any movement aimed at dismantling Brazil's democratic rule of law or its institutions. Bolsonaro himself has denied any wrongdoing and called the case politically motivated.

But few of Bolsonaro's allies believe the panel, which comprises just under half of the court's full bench, will refuse to hear the case against him. The panel is largely composed of justices known for taking a tough stance on the alleged excesses of the hard-right movement led by Bolsonaro. 

Lawyers for the former president filed a petition asking for the case to be heard by the Supreme Court's full bench of 11 justices, including two judges appointed by Bolsonaro. The request was denied.

This stage of proceedings requires a lower evidentiary threshold, because judges are not deciding on the merits of the case, but rather if there are sufficient grounds to proceed with collecting evidence, Hartmann said.

The charges against the former president followed a two-year police investigation and included 33 other people, with several high-ranking military officials among them.

They are accused of five crimes, including a violent attempt to abolish the democratic rule of law, coup d'état and damaging government property. 

Investigators allege that the group's plans included poisoning President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and killing Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing the case. Lawyers for Bolsonaro argued that as an alleged victim of the plot, Moraes should not be able to rule on the case, but they could not sway the court.

If convicted, Bolsonaro could face substantial prison time. Eloisa Machado, a law professor at Fundação Getulio Vargas in Sao Paulo, said an analysis of convictions of participants in the recent anti-democratic activities suggests Bolsonaro might receive a sentence of more than a dozen years.

As part of the case against Bolsonaro, the court will also hear this week charges against his former justice minister, Anderson Torres, former Defense Minister Paulo Sergio Nogueira and former Chief of Staff Walter Braga Netto, who was also his running mate in the 2022 election.

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia and Luciana Magalhaes in Sao Paulo; Editing by Manuela Andreoni, Brad Haynes and Matthew Lewis)