Jair Bolsonaro Ordered to Face Trial in Brazil for Attempting a Coup

Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president, will face trial on charges that he oversaw a vast scheme to cling to power after losing the 2022 elections, including an attempt to overturn the vote and a plot to assassinate the nation’s president-elect, the country’s supreme court decided on Wednesday.

The ruling marks a significant effort to hold Mr. Bolsonaro accountable for accusations that he sought to effectively dismantle Brazil’s democracy by orchestrating a broad plan to stage a coup.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing the case, said in explaining his decision that there was no doubt Mr. Bolsonaro “knew, handled and discussed’’ plans for a coup.

Mr. Bolsonaro and seven members of his inner circle, including his running mate and a former spy chief, will be tried on charges filed by prosecutors last month of “violent abolition of the democratic rule of law’’ and “coup d’état,’’ among other crimes.

In a surprise move, Mr. Bolsonaro attended the first day of the two-day hearing alongside his lawyers but remained silent. Mr. Bolsonaro has denied the charges, claiming they are politically motivated.

Celso Sanchez Vilardi, one of Mr. Bolsonaro’s lawyers, did not deny the existence of a coup plot, calling the details of the plan “very serious” in his argument before the high court. But he insisted that there was no link between Mr. Bolsonaro and the scheme.