RIO DE JANEIRO >> Brazil’s chief prosecutor has called for a guilty verdict in the case of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, on trial accused of leading an alleged coup plot to overturn the 2022 election in which he was defeated by a left-wing rival.

Hours before the prosecutor’s final report was released late Monday, the ex-president said on X that the trial was a “witch hunt,” echoing a term used by U.S. President Donald Trump when he came to his South American ally’s defense last week.

In the 517-page document, Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet said that the “evidence is clear: the defendant acted systematically, throughout his mandate and after his defeat at the polls, to incite insurrection and the destabilization of the democratic rule of law.”

“None of this happened. I’ve always played within the rules,” Bolsonaro said in an interview with local outlet Poder360 on Tuesday.

Bolsonaro’s trial

The prosecution accuses the former president of leading an armed criminal organization, attempting to stage a coup and attempting violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, among other charges.

The defense will next present its case shortly, likely in the coming weeks, after which the panel of Supreme Court justices that opened the trial against Bolsonaro will vote on whether to convict or acquit him. Experts say a decision is expected in the second half of the year.

A guilty verdict on the coup plot charge carries a sentence of up to 12 years, which could, along with guilty verdicts on other charges, bring decades behind bars.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied the allegations and asserted that he’s the target of political persecution.

“What is a coup? It’s the Armed Forces, it’s tanks on the streets, it’s having a political core, having a financial core,” Bolsonaro said Tuesday. “That’s a coup. Nothing was even considered (...) and even if it had been considered, since nothing started, there’s no crime.”

A lawyer for Bolsonaro didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

A nod from Trump

Last week, Trump imposed a 50% import tax on Brazil, directly tying the tariffs to Bolsonaro’s trial. The U.S. president has hosted the former Brazilian president at his Mar-a-Lago resort when both were in power in 2020.

Last week, he compared the Brazilian’s situation to his own. On Tuesday, speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump repeated the claim that the trial is a “witch hunt.”

“Bolsonaro is not a dishonest man,” he said. “Nobody is happy with what Brazil is doing because Bolsonaro was a respected president.”

Trump added that Bolsonaro isn’t a friend, but someone he knows.

On Monday, the office of the under secretary for public diplomacy at the U.S. State Department said on X that “attacks” on Bolsonaro “are a disgrace and fall well below the dignity of Brazil’s democratic traditions.” The U.S. Embassy in Brazil reposted the message, adding a translation in Portuguese.

Brazil’s foreign ministry responded Tuesday, saying those claims are “further undue and unacceptable interference in matters under the jurisdiction of the Brazilian judiciary.”