BRASILIA: Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro is due to face questioning by police Thursday over allegations he and allies plotted a coup to keep him in power in the months around his failed 2022 reelection bid.Investigators say the far-right ex-army captain led a plot to falsely discredit the Brazilian election system and prevent the winner of the vote, leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, from taking power.Bolsonaro, who denies the accusations, said Wednesday he would only answer questions from federal police if his lawyers were first given access to the investigation files. “No one attempted a coup in Brazil. That is the great truth,” he told radio station CBN Recife.Earlier this month, police carried out dozens of search and seizure raids targeting Bolsonaro and his allies and confiscated the former president’s passport. Bolsonaro, who led Brazil from 2019 to 2022, says he is the victim of “persecution.” Several of his former ministers and other allies have also been summoned for questioning Thursday, according to Brazilian media reports.The interrogation comes three days before a pro-Bolsonaro rally in Sao Paulo, where he plans to defend himself against the accusations. It will be the sixth time Bolsonaro has faced questioning by federal police in a series of corruption and abuse of office investigations since he left office.
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