Bolsonaro mum during police questioning over Brazil 'coup'

Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro opted for silence Thursday during police questioning into claims he plotted a coup with allies to remain in power after his failed 2022 reelection bid.

Investigators say the far-right ex-army captain led a plot to falsely discredit the Brazilian election system and prevent the winner of the vote, leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, from taking power.

Bolsonaro, who denies the accusations, did not respond to questions during a half-hour interrogation at federal police headquarters in Brasilia on Thursday, his lawyer Paula Cunha said.

Cunha told reporters that Bolsonaro had exercised his right to remain silent "because he is responding to a semi-secret investigation."

On Wednesday, the ex-president said he would only answer police questions if his lawyers were first given access to the investigation files.

"No one attempted a coup in Brazil. That is the great truth," he told radio station CBN Recife.

Cunha on Thursday underlined that his client "was never favorable to any kind of coup" and "fears nothing because he did not commit any crime."

Earlier this month, police carried out dozens of search and seizure raids targeting Bolsonaro and his allies and confiscated the former president's passport.

Bolsonaro, who led Brazil from 2019 to 2022, claims to be the victim of "persecution."

Several of his former ministers and other allies have also been summoned for questioning Thursday, according to Brazilian media reports.

The interrogation came three days before a pro-Bolsonaro rally in Sao Paulo, where he plans to defend himself against the accusations.

Thursday's appearance is the sixth time Bolsonaro has faced questioning by federal police in a series of corruption and abuse-of-office investigations since he left office.

- Draft decree -

A week after Lula took office on January 1, 2023, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court, urging the military to intervene to overturn what they called a stolen election.

Bolsonaro, who was in the United States at the time, denies responsibility, and has even suggested the protesters were not really his supporters.

But he faces growing scrutiny over his actions in the months before and after the October 2022 elections, from his public efforts to discredit the electronic voting system -- claims for which he never provided evidence -- to what investigators say was a behind-the-scenes plot against democracy.

Police say Bolsonaro edited a draft presidential decree that would have declared a state of emergency, called new elections and ordered the arrest of Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the head of Brazil's Superior Electoral Tribunal.

They also released a video of a July 2022 meeting where a shouting, swearing Bolsonaro ordered cabinet ministers to help him discredit the election system.

In June, the electoral tribunal barred 68-year-old Bolsonaro from running for office until 2030 over his attacks on the election system.

Moraes is also the lead judge in the investigation into the alleged coup plot -- a situation the ex-president's lawyers tried to fight in court, arguing he should recuse himself.

The Supreme Court denied the request.

Moraes has also rejected an attempt by Bolsonaro to postpone his questioning, ruling the president had the right to remain silent but not to change the date.

As president, Bolsonaro regularly attacked Moraes, who has become a hated figure for the Brazilian far-right.

By Ramon Sahmkow