Brazil’s top prosecutor Paulo Gonet has formally charged former President Jair Bolsonaro with attempting a coup to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat.

Bolsonaro never formally conceded his narrow electoral defeat to Lula in October 2022, insinuating that instead the election had been stolen. In 2023, Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court ruled that he had abused his power and banned him from running for political office again for the next eight years.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday that if charges against his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro in a 2022 coup plot are proven true, he should be imprisoned. Bolsonaro earlier this week was charged by Brazil's top prosecutor with leading a "criminal organization" aiming to overthrow the country's democracy after he lost the 2022 election to Lula,