Bolsonaro lawyers tell Brazil court acquittal 'imperative'

Bolsonaro, also a former army captain, risks up to 43 years in prison if convicted of trying to cling onto power after losing 2022 elections to his leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The court is set to deliver its verdict next week in a case which has sparked the ire of US President Donald Trump, an ally of Bolsonaro.

The Trump administration has imposed 50-percent tariffs on a range of Brazilian goods and sanctioned the judge presiding over what the US leader has called a "witch hunt."

On Tuesday, the judge presiding over Bolsonaro's trial, Alexandre de Moraes, accused the 70-year-old former far-right leader of seeking to install a "true dictatorship."

Bolsonaro, who served a single term from 2019 to 2022, denies the charges.

He insists he is the victim of political persecution and has declined to attend the verdict deliberations.

Prosecutors accuse him of having led a "criminal organization" that conspired to claw power back from Lula.

They say that, after his election defeat, Bolsonaro plotted to declare a state of emergency and call new elections, but failed to win the support of the military top brass.

Prosecutors also allege that he knew of a plot to assassinate Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin and Moraes.

- 'Not a shred of evidence' -

"There is not a single shred of evidence linking him" to the alleged coup plot, another of his lawyers, Celso Vilardi, told the court on Wednesday.

Vilardi also questioned the plea bargain reached by the prosecution with one of Bolsonaro's co-defendants who turned state witness, Mauro Cid.

Much of the state's case rests on the testimony provided by Bolsonaro's former right-hand man.

The defence says the case contains parallels with the Dreyfus affair, whose conviction went down in history as a example of judicial bias.

Unlike the Bolsonaro case, however, the Dreyfus affair was underpinned by anti-Semitism.

As the trial wraps up, negotiations are accelerating in Congress on an amnesty bill which, if passed, could see Bolsonaro avoid prison even if convicted.

"We will work for a broad, general, and unlimited amnesty," Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the former president's son, told reporters on Tuesday.

An amnesty would also potentially benefit hundreds of "Bolsonaristas" convicted over the January 8, 2023 storming of the Supreme Court, presidential palace and Congress.

Bolsonaro was in the United States at the time but is accused of inciting the rioters, who called for the military to depose Lula a week after his return to power.

Lindbergh Farias, leader of Lula's Workers' Party in the lower house of Congress, admitted this week that the pro-amnesty movement "has grown."

But he told AFP he was confident no such bill would become law.

"President Lula will veto it or the Supreme Court will overturn it," he predicted.

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