Brazil’s President says Bolsonaro entitled to fair trial for attempted coup

Sao Paulo: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said that his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro has the right to a fair trial over allegedly attempting to overthrow the government to stay in power after losing his reelection bid in 2022.

Should Bolsonaro and his aides be found guilty of attempted coup, they could face up to 43 years in prison.

“What I hope is that justice will be done, respecting the right to the presumption of innocence, that’s all. I wish for myself and for any of my enemies the right to the presumption of innocence,” Lula said on Tuesday, Brazil time, as the final stage of the trial got underway at the Supreme Federal Court, the nation’s highest court.

The president noted that Bolsonaro has the right to defend himself, a right that was denied to Lula when he was arrested in 2018 on corruption charges. The case against him was later overturned when the anti-corruption Operation Car Wash was found to have been politically motivated, Xinhua News Agency reported.

“He (Bolsonaro) can defend himself as I could not. I did not complain, I was not crying,” the president told reporters in Sao Paulo.

Earlier in August, Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered a round-the-clock monitoring of former President Jair Bolsonaro for fear that he could attempt to flee house arrest ahead of a verdict in his coup attempt trial.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing the case, granted a request from federal prosecutors after warning that Bolsonaro could seek refuge in a foreign embassy. Bolsonaro is currently confined to his residence in the national capital, Brasilia.

Moraes said the actions by Bolsonaro’s son, lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, who is in the United States lobbying against the trial and pressing for an amnesty in Congress, “demonstrate the possibility of Jair Messias Bolsonaro fleeing to evade the application of criminal law.”

Earlier on July 18, a justice of Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court decided to impose strict legal restrictions on former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his son Eduardo Bolsonaro for coercion, obstruction of justice, and attack on national sovereignty.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the measures include nightly house arrest on weekdays, full-time house arrest on weekends and holidays, wearing an electronic ankle monitor, and a ban on contacting foreign diplomats or visiting embassies and consulates, the supreme court said in a press release.

According to the release, the former president and his son had lobbied in the United States to solicit sanctions against Brazilian officials.

The justice stated that Brazil’s sovereignty will never be negotiated, reaffirming the supreme court’s determination to defend democratic and constitutional principles.

IANS