SAO PAULO (AP) — A panel of Brazil Supreme Court justices unanimously ruled that former President Jair Bolsonaro and seven of his associates will stand trial on five counts, including attempting to stage a coup after the far-right leader lost the 2022 election.

The panel will review existing evidence, potentially gather new evidence and hear testimonies. Legal experts estimate that Bolsonaro could be sentenced to up to 40 years in prison, though his actual jail time — if convicted — would be less than that due to procedural considerations.

Here’s what to know about what will happen after Wednesday’s ruling:

Bolsonaro will stand trial on the counts of attempting to stage a coup, involvement in an armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, damage characterized by violence and a serious threat against the state’s assets, and deterioration of listed heritage.

The five-justices panel of Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled based on the indictment by Prosecutor-General, Paulo Gonet. His formal accusation came from a federal police investigation that placed Bolsonaro on the top of a criminal organization that had been active since at least 2021.

Gonet also accused Bolsonaro of supporting a plan that allegedly included poisoning his successor, current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and killing Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

While a specific trial date has not been set, the chairman of the Supreme Court panel is expected to outline the procedural framework in the coming days.

Eloísa Machado, a law professor at the Fundacao Getulio Vargas university in Sao Paulo, explained that the evidentiary phase of the criminal case, which includes defendant interrogations, witness testimony and further procedures such as expert examinations, begins. Many of those procedures will be conducted by auxiliary judges.

“Then, the rapporteur prepares a report and requests a trial date,” Machado said. “After this stage, prosecutors and defense attorneys will present their final arguments before the court rules on whether to acquit or convict.”

Bolsonaro’s defense team had requested the case to be sent to the full Supreme Court, not just on the 5-justice panel, which could drag a ruling into 2026 as all 11 justices would have their say on the case. The request was denied.

Brazil’s top court is using one of its two permanent 5-justice panels to put Bolsonaro on trial. None of the five was appointed by Bolsonaro.

As rapporteur of the case, justice de Moraes brought the charges to the one he sits on.

The other four justices are Cármen Lúcia, considered one of the harshest on criminal cases; Cristiano Zanin, the chairman of the panel and Lula’s attorney between 2013 and 2023; Flávio Dino, appointed by the leftist president in 2023 after serving as his justice minister; and Luiz Fux, the court’s chief-justice between 2020 and 2022, considered a moderate.

Brazilian criminal law mandates that arrests occur only after a final, unappealable conviction.

The Supreme Court of Brazil, being the final appeals tribunal for criminal cases involving public authorities, possesses ultimate jurisdiction over Bolsonaro’s case.

If the former president takes any action that hampers the court’s ability to deliver its ruling, such as seeking shelter in an embassy, he could be arrested before the trial ends.

Bolsonaro, who has been banned from running for office until 2030 for abuse of power and undermining confidence in the country’s voting system, has denied wrongdoing and claims he is the target of political persecution.

“If I go to jail, I will give you a lot of work,” Bolsonaro said after Wednesday’s Supreme Court’s decision.

Lula was convicted of corruption and money laundering by low court judge Sergio Moro in 2017, and had his sentence later upheld by a group of magistrates. He served more than a year and seven months in prison and was released after the Supreme Court changed its jurisprudence to forbid jail time for any Brazilian until all appeals are exhausted.

In 2021, the same court annulled Lula’s sentence as it found Moro to be biased. Moro left his position as a federal judge to become Bolsonaro’s justice minister.

Michel Temer, who governed between 2016 and 2018 after Dilma Rousseff was impeached, was acquitted by a federal court in 2024 in a corruption and money laundering case. He was briefly arrested in 2019 under the accusation of profiting from fraudulent contracts between state-run Eletronuclear and companies AF Consult Ltd and Engevix during his time as vice president.

Fernando Collor, who governed between 1990 and his impeachment in 1992, was sentenced to eight years and ten months in jail in 2023 for his role in a corruption scheme at then state-run BR Distribuidora. The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court last year, but Collor is yet to be imprisoned.

The inclusion of high-ranking military officials to stand trial in Brazil’s top court is unprecedented, as the country’s transition from a military dictatorship to democracy in the 1980s was marked by a sweeping amnesty for military personnel.

Four high-ranking military officials who operated under Bolsonaro will stand trial. These are former Defense Minister Paulo Sérgio Nogueira; former Navy commander Almir Garnier Santos; retired Gen. Augusto Heleno, who headed the Institutional Security Office; and retired Gen. Walter Braga Netto, who served as Bolsonaro’s chief of staff and defense minister.

“Four-star generals accused of plotting a coup are now likely to be convicted and punished under Brazil’s democratic legal system,” said João Roberto Martins Filho, a political science professor at the Federal University of Sao Carlos and former president of the Brazilian Association of Defense Studies. “Anyone who attempts a military-backed coup and fails could face consequences like what we’re seeing now. They could end in prison.”

____ Associated Press writer Mauricio Savarese contributed to this report.

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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s prosecutor-general on Tuesday formally charged former President Jair Bolsonaro with attempting a coup to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat, in a plot that included a plan to poison his successor and current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and kill a Supreme Court judge.

Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet alleges that Bolsonaro and 33 others participated in a plan to remain in power. The alleged plot, he wrote, included a plan to poison Lula and shoot dead Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a foe of the former president.

“The members of the criminal organization structured a plan at the presidential palace to attack institutions, aiming to bring down the system of the powers and the democratic order, which received the sinister name of ‘Green and Yellow Dagger,’” Gonet wrote in a 272-page indictment. “The plan was conceived and taken to the knowledge of the president, and he agreed to it.”

Bolsonaro is often seen in Brazil’s yellow-and-green national soccer jersey and the colors have become associated with his political movement.

Bolsonaro’s defense team said it met the accusations with “dismay and indignation,” adding in a statement that the former “President has never agreed to any movement aimed at deconstructing the democratic rule of law or the institutions that underpin it.”

Bolsonaro’s son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who is a senator, said on the social platform X that the indictment was “empty” and there was no evidence of wrongdoing. He accused the Prosecutor-General’s Office of serving “the nefarious interests of Lula.”

In November, Brazil’s Federal Police filed a 884-page report with Gonet detailing the scheme. They allege a systematic effort to sow distrust in the electoral system, drafting a decree to provide legal cover for the plot, pressuring top military brass to go along with the plan and inciting a riot in the capital.

In the indictment, Gonet described the alleged crimes as part of a chain of events articulated with an overarching objective of stopping Bolsonaro from leaving office, “contrary to the result of the popular will at the polls.”

The Supreme Court will analyze the charges and, if accepted, Bolsonaro will stand trial.

The far-right leader denies wrongdoing. “I have no concerns about the accusations, zero,” Bolsonaro told journalists earlier on Tuesday during a visit to the Senate in Brasilia.

“Have you seen the coup decree, by any chance? You haven’t. Neither have I,” he added.

As well as participating in a coup d’état, the 34 defendants are accused of participating in an armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, damage qualified by violence and serious threat against the state’s assets, and deterioration of listed heritage, according to a statement from the Prosecutor General’s press office.

Gonet said the criminal organization he charged “had as leaders the (then) president himself and his running mate, Gen. Braga Netto.”

“Both accepted, stimulated, and performed acts that are described in our criminal legislation as attacking the existence and the Independence of (the branches) of power and of the democratic rule,” Gonet wrote in his report.

The crimes have varying penalties. If Bolsonaro is convicted of attempting a coup and the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, according to the country’s criminal code.

The indictments, based on manuscripts, digital files, spreadsheets, and message exchanges, expose a scheme to disrupt democratic order, according to the prosecutor-general’s office.

The charges are “historic,” said Luis Henrique Machado, a criminal attorney and professor at the IDP university in Brasilia, adding that he expects the Supreme Court to accept the charges and put Bolsonaro on trial sometime before the end of next year.

“The charges show Brazil’s institutions are robust, independent and agile,” Machado said. “They are a role model for other countries where democracy is at risk.”

Bolsonaro is barred from running in the 2026 election after judges with the country’s top electoral court ruled that he abused his power and cast unfounded doubts on the country’s electronic voting system.

Following Tuesday’s charges, Bolsonaro will “position himself as a victim,” said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo. Bolsonaro has previously said his legal woes are an attempt to stop him from returning to office.

“There are polls saying he would be competitive in the 2026 elections against Lula, one of them published today,” said Melo. “There’s going to be political dust, but it will settle.”

Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.