BRASILIA, April 23, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Brazil's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a trial on coup charges for six aides of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, also in the dock for an alleged bid to hold onto power after losing elections in 2022.

The inner circle of the far-right former leader are alleged to have collaborated with Bolsonaro in the plot to get rid of leftist election winner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, now in office.

Last month, the same court ordered Bolsonaro and seven allies, including former ministers and an ex-navy commander, to stand trial in a case that could torpedo his hopes of making a Donald Trump-style political comeback.

If convicted, the 70-year-old former army captain, who had nurtured hopes of standing in elections next year, risks a jail term of over 40 years and political banishment.

The trial will be the first of an ex-leader accused of attempting to take power by force since Brazil's return to democracy in 1985 following two decades of military dictatorship.

On Tuesday, five judges ruled unanimously to also try a second tier of alleged plotters.

They include senior presidential staffer Mario Fernandes, foreign affairs advisor Filipe Garcia Martins, senior assistant Marcelo Costa, former highway police director Silvinei Vasques, and police officers Fernando de Sousa and Marilia Ferreira de Alencar.

They also risk up to 40 years in prison.

Bolsonaro, who served a single term from 2019 to 2022, is accused of leading a "criminal organization" that conspired to keep him in power regardless of the outcome of 2022 elections he lost to Lula by a razor-thin margin.

Investigators say that after his defeat, but while still in office, the coup plotters planned to declare a state of emergency so that new elections could be held.

He is also accused of being aware of a plot to assassinate Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin, and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes -- a Bolsonaro foe and one of the judges on the current case.

Bolsonaro is charged with attempting a "coup d'etat," the "attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law" and leading an "armed criminal organization," among other crimes.

The prosecution says the plot did not come to fruition due to a lack of support from the army high command.

Bolsonaro insists he is the victim of a political plot to obstruct his return to power.