The legal struggle over the conviction of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro in an alleged coup trial has divided Supreme Court judges.
One of the Brazilian Supreme Court judges surprised colleagues on Wednesday as he voted to acquit him, creating a split in the ongoing trial over the alleged coup attempt in 2022.
This came a day after two judges voted to convict the former leader. With the latest vote, the count now stands at two judges for conviction (Alexandre de Moraes and Flavio Dino) and one for acquittal (Luiz Fux).
Two judges remain to cast their votes. A simple majority of three is sufficient for a conviction.
The trial seeks to determine whether Bolsonaro orchestrated a plot to illegally cling to power after his election defeat in 2022 to current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
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Although Judge Fux began the day by calling for the entire trial to be annulled, arguing that the Supreme Court is not competent to hear the proceedings against him, he later voted for Bolsonaro to be acquitted due to a lack of evidence.
The judge ruled that, without overthrowing the government, there is no coup d’état and dismissed much of the Attorney General’s case.
The dissenting judge said that Bolsonaro’s behaviour was not intended as a coup and instead falls within the scope of political activity.
In a statement that lasted more than 10 hours, Fux argued that the Prosecutor’s Office had not fully proved its accusations against Bolsonaro and asserted that in a criminal trial, “criminal liability must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” which, in his opinion, was not the case.
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