All The Brazi's Ex-President's Men: Jair Bolsonaro's Co-Accused

Former Brazilian cabinet ministers and military commanders are accused of plotting with far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro to stop leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva taking power after he won October 2022 elections.

Brazil's Supreme Court will start handing down its verdict Tuesday in the attempted coup trial of Bolsonaro and seven main co-defendants.

All eight men risk prison sentences of about 40 years.

The aide

Once Bolsonaro's right-hand man, Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid is a defendant in the case but also the prosecution's main witness under a deal that could see him receive a reduced sentence if convicted.

The prosecution says Cid, 46, was tasked with gathering evidence of purported fraud in the 2022 election that Bolsonaro lost. He allegedly used hackers in his endeavors.

On Cid's phone, investigators found a speech Bolsonaro was allegedly going to deliver upon completion of his illegal takeover of power.

Cid is also accused of having delivered Bolsonaro's directives to other alleged coup plotters.

The running mate

General Walter Braga Netto served as Bolsonaro's defense minister and was his running mate on the 2022 presidential ticket.

He shares Bolsonaro's expressed nostalgia for Brazil's 1964-85 military dictatorship.

Prosecutors accuse Braga Netto, 68, of having been one of the leaders of the coup plot.

He alleged to have been involved in a plot dubbed "Green and Yellow Dagger" (after the colors of the Brazilian flag) to assassinate Lula, his vice president, and Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes -- the presiding judge in the trial.

Braga Netto was arrested in December for attempting to obstruct the investigation, and remains in detention. 

The military instructor 

General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, 77, was Bolsonaro's instructor at a military school in the 1970s.

Decades later, he served as Bolsonaro's secretary of institutional security, coordinating intelligence activities, among other things.

He has enjoyed a long career, including serving as Brazil's military attache in Paris and heading the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah).

Prosecutors say he was one of the instigators of a stream of unsubstantiated attacks on Brazil's electronic voting system, which aimed to sow doubt in the minds of voters about the credibility of the election.

The decree keeper 

Anderson Torres, 49, was Bolsonaro's justice minister and briefly in charge of government security during a 2023 uprising by supporters urging the military to oust Lula a week after he took office.

At Torres's home, police found a draft decree overturning the election result.

The political heavyweight 

General Paulo Sergio Nogueira served as defense minister during the final months of Bolsonaro's government.

The 67-year-old is alleged to have attended a meeting where then-president Bolsonaro and others discussed declaring a state of emergency to reject the election result and justify a military intervention. 

According to the charge sheet, Nogueira's acquiescence gave Bolsonaro the "support of the highest political authority of the armed forces," even though the top brass did not go along with the plan in the end.

The Navy officer 

Admiral Almir Garnier Santos, 64, was appointed commander of the Brazilian navy by Bolsonaro in 2021.

Prosectors say he attended two meetings the following year where the alleged plot was discussed, and assured Bolsonaro that "navy forces would be at the president's disposal."

He was implicated by former Air Force commander Carlos de Almeida Baptista Junior, who was present at one such meeting but slapped down the proposal.

The spy 

Alexandre Ramagem, 53, is a former police officer who commanded Brazil's main intelligence agency ABIN during Bolsonaro's tenure. 

Now a congressman, he is accused of spreading disinformation on social networks about Bolsonaro's opponents and the electoral system, aided by a network of police officers and intelligence agents prosecutors say acted as a "parallel" spy outfit.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)