Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva says predecessor Jair Bolsonaro is acknowledging his guilt in a case in which he's accused of plotting a coup to stay in power by focusing on a campaign for amnesty.

Bolsonaro never formally conceded his narrow electoral defeat to Lula in October 2022, insinuating that instead the election had been stolen. In 2023, Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court ruled that he had abused his power and banned him from running for political office again for the next eight years.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday that if charges against his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro in a 2022 coup plot are proven true, he should be imprisoned. Bolsonaro earlier this week was charged by Brazil's top prosecutor with leading a "criminal organization" aiming to overthrow the country's democracy after he lost the 2022 election to Lula,