TOKYO: Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Thursday he hopes “justice is served” to far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro, who will stand trial on charges of plotting a coup.
The country’s Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to put Bolsonaro on trial in 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’s return to democracy in 1985 following two decades of military dictatorship.
Bolsonaro was not in court for the unanimous ruling by the five-judge panel, but in comments to reporters he slammed the allegations as “unfounded.”
“It seems they have something personal against me,” he said.
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.
Bolsonaro, who served a single term from 2019 to 2022, is accused of leading a “criminal organization” 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.
Investigators say that after Bolsonaro’s defeat, but while he was still in 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.
“I only hope that justice is served,” Lula told reporters on Thursday during a state visit to Japan.
“It’s obvious the former president tried to stage a coup, he knows he tried to assassinate me, he knows he tried to assassinate the vice president and everyone knows what he did,” he said.
Moraes, who has called Bolsonaro a “dictator,” was the first judge to give his findings in Wednesday’s hearing.
“There are reasonable indications from the prosecution pointing to Bolsonaro as the leader of the criminal organization,” he said.
Analysts say it is unlikely Bolsonaro will be placed in preventive custody, and he will probably stand trial as a free man to avoid perceptions of election interference.
Bolsonaro will be the second former Brazilian president in under a decade to face a criminal trial.
In July 2017, then ex-president Lula was found guilty of corruption.
He spent a year and a half in prison but had his conviction annulled by the Supreme Court and went on to win back the top office.
Bolsonaro is charged with attempting a “coup d’etat,” the “attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law” and “armed criminal organization,” among other crimes.
The prosecution says the plot did not come to fruition due to a lack of support from the army high command.
Seven alleged conspirators will be tried alongside the ex-president, including former ministers and an ex-navy commander.
Bolsonaro insists he is the victim of a political plot to obstruct his return to power.
A supporter in Sao Paulo, 44-year-old financial supervisor Cleber Fonseca, said he thought this amounted to a “political persecution” as “so far, no evidence has been shown.”
Bolsonaro’s political future had already appeared in doubt before Wednesday’s ruling.
He has been disqualified from holding public office until 2030 for having sought to cast doubt on Brazil’s electronic voting system. He had been hoping to have the ban overturned in time to stand in next year’s election.
A conviction for plotting to subvert Brazil’s democracy would likely force the political right to find a new candidate.
Dubbed the “Trump of the tropics” after the US president, his political idol, Bolsonaro has been the target of multiple investigations since his turbulent years as leader of Latin America’s biggest economy.
The latest investigation yielded a dossier of nearly 900 pages.
It also mentions the disturbances of January 8, 2023, when thousands of Bolsonaro’s backers stormed the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court demanding the military oust Lula a week after his inauguration.
Bolsonaro was in the United States at the time and says he condemned the “violent acts” committed that day.
He has consistently compared his fate to that of his “friend” Trump, who returned to the White House this year despite his own legal troubles and after a similar storming of the US Capitol by his supporters in January 2021.
“I am not dead yet,” he told reporters Wednesday in Brasilia, insisting the candidate for the right in next year’s vote “will be Bolsonaro.”
Police investigating the alleged coup plot confiscated Bolsonaro’s passport last year.
Brazil’s Lula hopes ‘justice is served’ in Bolsonaro trial
https://arab.news/9hefu
Brazil’s Lula hopes ‘justice is served’ in Bolsonaro trial
- The country’s Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to put former leader Jair Bolsonaro on trial
- That case could torpedo his hopes of making a Donald Trump-style political comeback
India’s new budget bets on AI, data centers to sustain growth
- Budget features new Bharat‑VISTAAR AI‑powered platform for agriculture sector
- It also includes tax holiday until 2047 for foreign companies using Indian data centers
NEW DELHI: India’s latest budget has emerged as one of its most technology-focused, with new measures to utilize artificial intelligence, semiconductor manufacturing, and expand digital infrastructure aimed at offsetting the impact of global tariff wars.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the 2026-27 budget in parliament on Sunday, saying it would “accelerate and sustain economic growth by enhancing productivity and competitiveness” at a time when India was facing “an external environment in which trade and multilateralism are imperiled and access to resources and supply chains are disrupted.”
New Delhi has yet to secure a trade deal with its largest trading partner, the US, which last year hit it with punitive tariffs of up to 50 percent over India’s purchases of Russian oil. To mitigate their impact, India has been looking for alternative agreements, including last week’s agreement with the EU, cutting duty on 99.5 percent of Indian exports to the bloc.
The new budget prioritizes infrastructure and domestic manufacturing, with a total expenditure estimated at $583 billion.
It offers tariff concessions for products from the marine, leather, and textile industries — all of which have been affected by US tariffs — and provides duty exemptions on materials and goods used to process rare-earth minerals, make lithium ion batteries, solar glass, and components for electric vehicles.
The finance minister also announced doubled spending for semiconductor manufacturing to $4.8 billion and a tax holiday until 2047 for foreign companies providing cloud services using Indian data centers.
The budget also features Bharat‑VISTAAR (Virtually Integrated System to Access Agricultural Resources), a multilingual AI‑powered platform for the agriculture sector to give farmers customized, real‑time advisory on crop management, weather, soil conditions and government schemes in different Indian languages.
“There is a lot of focus on AI and technology. It is to achieve the ambitious target India has already declared — Viksit Bharat 2047. It is very clear that without technology, it would be difficult to achieve that target,” Prof. Pardeep S. Chauhan, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, told Arab News, referring to the government’s plan to transform the nation into a fully developed country by 2047 — the 100th anniversary of its independence.
“That was the need of the hour, and the government has taken care of it, focusing on semiconductors, AI, and rare-earth minerals.”
The technology focus also comes against the backdrop of China’s dominance in the global critical minerals supply chains, and last year’s restrictions imposed by Beijing in the wake of escalating trade tensions with the US.
“India lags far behind the US and China, particularly China,” Chauhan said. “India has taken this move to maybe after five, 10, 15 years ... compete up to some extent. Without technology, nobody can think of establishing (their) leadership — whether it’s in the economy, defense or financial infrastructure architecture. Everywhere you need technology.”
