Trial of Brazil's ex-President Bolsonaro enters final phase
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
He is accused of masterminding an attempt to stay in power after losing his bid for re-election in 2022, which culminated in his supporters breaking into and vandalising government buildings in the capital, Brasília. Bolsonaro has always denied any wrongdoing and said the charges were politically motivated. His cause has been adopted by US President Donald Trump, who has called the trial a "witch-hunt" using it as justification for imposing 50% tariffs on some Brazilian goods and sanctioning the Supreme Court judge leading the proceedings.
Also on the programme: will a new boss at one of fashion's biggest magazines bring the glory days back? And we hear about the mysterious disappearance of the Lebanese cleric, Musa al-Sadr in Libya, back in 1978.
(Picture: An inflatable figure depicting Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro stands near protesters outside party headquarters.Credit:REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service coming live from London. |
| 0:08.5 | This is Owen Bennett Jones. And coming up a little later in the programme, we'll hear from Afghanistan, |
| 0:14.1 | where there have been strong aftershocks in days after a powerful earthquake, which the Taliban authorities say killed more than 1,400 people. |
| 0:24.0 | We went to a village and saw that the village had almost 30 houses. |
| 0:29.9 | They were all destroyed. |
| 0:31.2 | We saw people out on the street. |
| 0:35.5 | They had to spend the night in open air. They did not have anything to live on. |
| 0:41.3 | But first, the former military officer, Jaya Bolsonaro, was president of Brazil from 2019 to |
| 0:47.3 | 2023. Many have made comparisons with Donald Trump, a vocal supporter of Bolsonaro, not least because Bolsonaro refused to accept his election defeat in the election of 2022. |
| 1:00.0 | According to prosecutors in his trial, which has just reached the point at which the judges are considering their verdict, the prosecutors say he wanted to hand the military special powers to disband |
| 1:12.6 | courts and even poison his rival, the current president, Luis Inacio Lula de Silva. Here's |
| 1:20.6 | Alexandra de Marais, Brazil's Supreme Court Justice. |
| 1:33.1 | It is regrettable that another coup has been attempted in Brazil's Republican history, |
| 1:36.6 | attacking institutions and democracy itself, |
| 1:42.1 | with the aim of establishing a state of emergency, a true dictatorship. |
| 1:44.6 | And Alexandra de Marais said justice is going to run its course. |
| 1:49.3 | If there is evidence beyond reasonable doubt, |
| 1:56.2 | criminal proceedings will be upheld and the defendants convicted. |
| 2:00.0 | If there is evidence of innocence or even |
| 2:02.8 | reasonable doubt about the defendant's guilt, the defendants will be acquitted. This is how justice |
| 2:08.7 | is done. It is the role of the Supreme Court to judge impartially and apply justice to |
| 2:15.0 | each specific case regardless of threats or coercion, |
... |
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