RIO DE JANEIRO: A panel of Brazil’s Supreme Court justices will gather on Tuesday to determine whether former President Jair Bolsonaro and close allies will stand trial on five counts, including attempting to stage a coup.
Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet charged Bolsonaro last month with plotting a coup after he lost the 2022 election to his opponent and current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Part of that plan allegedly included poisoning Lula and killing Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a foe of Bolsonaro.
Five Supreme Court justices – including de Moraes, the rapporteur – will meet from 9:30 a.m. local time in Brasilia to rule on the charges leveled by Gonet. If a majority votes in favor, the accused will become defendants in a criminal case.
Bolsonaro and his alleged accomplices also stand accused of participating in an armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, damage qualified by violence and a serious threat against the state’s assets, and deterioration of listed heritage.
Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and says that he’s being politically persecuted.
Under Brazilian law, a coup conviction alone carries a sentence of up to 12 years, but combined with the other charges, he could be sentenced to decades behind bars.
Observers say that it’s likely that the charges will be accepted.
“There is no shadow of a doubt that there are very clear elements” that crimes were committed, said Thiago Bottino, a law professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think tank and university. “The current tendency is that there will be a criminal trial.”
Gonet filed charges against a total of 34 people in February. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will analyze whether to accept charges against eight of them. As well as Bolsonaro, the court will vote on the accusations faced by former Defense Ministers Walter Braga Netto and Paulo Sérgio Nogueira and ex-Justice Minister Anderson Torres, among others. The court will decide on the others’ fates later on.
Bolsonaro has sought to shore up political support before the possible trial, including by holding a protest on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro on March 16.
Local media reported that around 18,000 people attended the rally, based on figures from a monitoring project linked to the University of Sao Paulo. Bolsonaro’s allies had hoped to draw a crowd of 1 million, which led some analysts to say that his ability to mobilize voters is diminishing.
Bolsonaro called on social media Sunday for a new demonstration on April 6, to be held on one of Sao Paulo’s main arteries, Avenida Paulista.
As with the protest earlier this month, the former president and his allies will push for Congress to grant amnesty to those in jail for their roles in the Jan. 8, 2023 riot, when Bolsonaro’s die-hard fans stormed and trashed the Supreme Court, Presidential Palace and Congress a week after Lula took office.
In his indictment of Bolsonaro and others linked to him, Gonet said that the rampage was a last-ditch attempt to hold onto power.
Bolsonaro, a former military officer who was known to express nostalgia for the country’s 1964-1985 dictatorship, openly defied Brazil’s judicial system during his 2019-2022 term in office.
He has already been banned by Brazil’s top electoral court from running in elections until 2030 over abuse of power while in office and casting unfounded doubts on the country’s electronic voting system.
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Brazil’s Supreme Court poised to decide if Bolsonaro will stand trial over coup attempt accusation
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Brazil’s Supreme Court poised to decide if Bolsonaro will stand trial over coup attempt accusation
- Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet charged Jair Bolsonaro last month with plotting a coup after he lost the 2022 election to his opponent
- Bolsonaro and his alleged accomplices also stand accused of participating in an armed criminal organization
Afghan mothers seek hospital help for malnourished children
HERAT: Najiba, 24, keeps a constant watch over her baby, Artiya, one of around four million children at risk of dying from malnutrition this year in Afghanistan.
After suffering a bout of pneumonia at three months old, Artiya’s condition deteriorated and his parents went from hospital to hospital trying to find help.
“I did not get proper rest or good food,” affecting her ability to produce breast milk, Najiba said at Herat Regional Hospital in western Afghanistan.
“These days, I do not have enough milk for my baby.”
The distressed mother, who chose not to give her surname for privacy reasons, said the family earns a living from an electric supplies store run by her husband.
Najiba and her husband spent their meagre savings trying to get care for Artiya, before learning that he has a congenital heart defect.
To her, “no one can understand what I’m going through. No one knows how I feel every day, here with my child in this condition.”
“The only thing I have left is to pray that my child gets better,” she said.
John Aylieff, Afghanistan director at the World Food Programme (WFP), said women are “sacrificing their own health and their own nutrition to feed their children.”
Artiya has gained weight after several weeks at the therapeutic nutrition center in the Herat hospital, where colorful drawings of balloons and flowers adorn the walls.
Mothers such as Najiba, who are grappling with the reality of not being able to feed their children, receive psychological support.
Meanwhile, Artiya’s father is “knocking on every door just to borrow money” which could fund an expensive heart operation on another ward, Najiba said.
- ‘Staggering’ scale -
On average, 315 to 320 malnourished children are admitted each month to the center, which is supported by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
The number of cases has steadily increased over the past five years, according to Hamayoun Hemat, MSF’s deputy coordinator in Herat.
Since the Taliban regained power in 2021, low-income families have been hit hard by cuts to international aid, as well as drought and the economic fallout of five million Afghans forced across the border from Iran and Pakistan.
“In 2025, we’d already seen the highest surge in child malnutrition recorded in Afghanistan since the beginning of the 21st century,” Aylieff said in Kabul.
The crisis is only set to worsen this year, he told AFP: “A staggering four million children in this country will be malnourished and will require treatment.”
“These children will die if they’re not treated.”
WFP is seeking $390 million to feed six million Afghans over the next six months, but Aylieff said the chance of getting such funds is “so bleak.”
Pledges of solidarity from around the globe, made after the Taliban government imposed its strict interpretation of Islamic law, have done little to help Afghan women, the WFP director said.
They are now “watching their children succumb to hunger in their arms,” he said.
- ‘No hope’ -
In the country of more than 40 million people, there are relatively few medical centers that can help treat malnutrition.
Some families travel hundreds of kilometers (miles) to reach Herat hospital as they lack health care facilities in their home provinces.
Wranga Niamaty, a nurse team supervisor, said they often receive patients in the “last stage” where there is “no hope” for their survival.
Still, she feels “proud” for those she can rescue from starvation.
In addition to treating the children, the nursing team advises women on breastfeeding, which is a key factor in combating malnutrition.
Single mothers who have to work as cleaners or in agriculture are sometimes unable to produce enough milk, often due to dehydration, nurse Fawzia Azizi said.
The clinic has been a lifesaver for Jamila, a 25-year-old mother who requested her surname not be used out of privacy concerns.
Jamila’s eight-month-old daughter has Down’s syndrome and is also suffering from malnutrition, despite her husband sending money back from Iran where he works.
Wrapped in a floral veil, Jamila said she fears for the future: “If my husband is expelled from Iran, we will die of hunger.”
After suffering a bout of pneumonia at three months old, Artiya’s condition deteriorated and his parents went from hospital to hospital trying to find help.
“I did not get proper rest or good food,” affecting her ability to produce breast milk, Najiba said at Herat Regional Hospital in western Afghanistan.
“These days, I do not have enough milk for my baby.”
The distressed mother, who chose not to give her surname for privacy reasons, said the family earns a living from an electric supplies store run by her husband.
Najiba and her husband spent their meagre savings trying to get care for Artiya, before learning that he has a congenital heart defect.
To her, “no one can understand what I’m going through. No one knows how I feel every day, here with my child in this condition.”
“The only thing I have left is to pray that my child gets better,” she said.
John Aylieff, Afghanistan director at the World Food Programme (WFP), said women are “sacrificing their own health and their own nutrition to feed their children.”
Artiya has gained weight after several weeks at the therapeutic nutrition center in the Herat hospital, where colorful drawings of balloons and flowers adorn the walls.
Mothers such as Najiba, who are grappling with the reality of not being able to feed their children, receive psychological support.
Meanwhile, Artiya’s father is “knocking on every door just to borrow money” which could fund an expensive heart operation on another ward, Najiba said.
- ‘Staggering’ scale -
On average, 315 to 320 malnourished children are admitted each month to the center, which is supported by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
The number of cases has steadily increased over the past five years, according to Hamayoun Hemat, MSF’s deputy coordinator in Herat.
Since the Taliban regained power in 2021, low-income families have been hit hard by cuts to international aid, as well as drought and the economic fallout of five million Afghans forced across the border from Iran and Pakistan.
“In 2025, we’d already seen the highest surge in child malnutrition recorded in Afghanistan since the beginning of the 21st century,” Aylieff said in Kabul.
The crisis is only set to worsen this year, he told AFP: “A staggering four million children in this country will be malnourished and will require treatment.”
“These children will die if they’re not treated.”
WFP is seeking $390 million to feed six million Afghans over the next six months, but Aylieff said the chance of getting such funds is “so bleak.”
Pledges of solidarity from around the globe, made after the Taliban government imposed its strict interpretation of Islamic law, have done little to help Afghan women, the WFP director said.
They are now “watching their children succumb to hunger in their arms,” he said.
- ‘No hope’ -
In the country of more than 40 million people, there are relatively few medical centers that can help treat malnutrition.
Some families travel hundreds of kilometers (miles) to reach Herat hospital as they lack health care facilities in their home provinces.
Wranga Niamaty, a nurse team supervisor, said they often receive patients in the “last stage” where there is “no hope” for their survival.
Still, she feels “proud” for those she can rescue from starvation.
In addition to treating the children, the nursing team advises women on breastfeeding, which is a key factor in combating malnutrition.
Single mothers who have to work as cleaners or in agriculture are sometimes unable to produce enough milk, often due to dehydration, nurse Fawzia Azizi said.
The clinic has been a lifesaver for Jamila, a 25-year-old mother who requested her surname not be used out of privacy concerns.
Jamila’s eight-month-old daughter has Down’s syndrome and is also suffering from malnutrition, despite her husband sending money back from Iran where he works.
Wrapped in a floral veil, Jamila said she fears for the future: “If my husband is expelled from Iran, we will die of hunger.”
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