Bolsonaro whips up Sao Paulo protest over coup charges

SAO PAULO - Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro rallied thousands of people Sunday to a demonstration in Sao Paulo against charges levied by the Supreme Court that he plotted a coup.

"What these guys really want isn't to lock me up, they want to kill me, because I'm a thorn in their throat," Bolsonaro said of the judges, who he has accused of persecuting him.

The far-right leader's rally brought out around 45,000 people to the financial center's prestigious Paulista Avenue, according to a count by the University of Sao Paolo, many of them wearing the national football strip adopted by his supporters.

Street vendors were offering items including masks of US President Donald Trump, bibles and flags of Israel and the United States, whose current governments Bolsonaro frequently praises.

The former president's key demand is amnesty for those convicted of an attack in Brasilia on January 8, 2023.

That day, thousands of his backers stormed the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court demanding the military oust President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva - who had narrowly triumphed over Bolsonaro in the 2022 election.

Bolsonaro himself will face trial for an alleged coup plot after the election, the country's Supreme Court decided last month - a case that could torpedo his hopes of making a Donald Trump-style political comeback.

It will be the first trial of an ex-leader accused of attempting to take power by force since Brazil returned to democracy in 1985 after two decades of military dictatorship.

Bolsonaro has denied the charges.

'GOD AND FLAG'

If convicted, the 70-year-old former army captain, who had nurtured hopes of standing in elections next year, risks a jail term of over 40 years, and political banishment.

"The current system seeks to remove right-wing leaders from the ballot," Bolsonaro told followers Sunday.

"But if they think I'm going to give up or run away, they are wrong."

Although he insists he wants to run again for president next year, Bolsonaro is barred from standing for office until 2030 for questioning the trustworthiness of the electoral system without evidence.

He has compared his situation to French far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen, who was last month ruled ineligible for five years by a Paris court over an embezzlement scheme.

"What happened in France with Le Pen, happened in Brazil with me," he told AFP.

The ex-president's wife Michelle was cheered by crowds as she called on women voters - "more than half of the population" - to "define the election."

She brandished a lipstick in reference to a woman, Debora Rodrigues, who spent two years in pre-trial detention for vandalising a statue with lipstick during the January 2023 unrest.

Rodrigues was recently placed under house arrest.

"If Bolsonaro goes to prison, I'm going to stand unarmed in front of the jail, with only my faith in God and my flag," said Sergio Lima, a 65-year-old pensioner.

'AFTER HIM'

The single-term president is accused of leading a "criminal organisation" that conspired to keep him in power regardless of the outcome of the 2022 election.

He lost to leftist rival Lula by a razor-thin margin.

"Bolsonaro did not steal, and that's why they're after him," said Derlaine Costa, a 43-year-old domestic worker at the rally.

Investigators say that after Bolsonaro's defeat but before he left office, the coup plotters planned to declare a state of emergency so that new elections could be held.

He is also accused of being aware of a plot to assassinate Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes - a Bolsonaro foe and one of the judges in the current case.

Last month, Bolsonaro led an amnesty rally in Rio de Janeiro that drew thousands of demonstrators.