Brazil: Trials begin for pro-Bolsonaro rioters who ransacked government offices in January

Brazil's high court has opened the first trials over the 8 January riots in Brasilia by supporters of far-right former-president Jair Bolsonaro.

The first four accused, who went on trial before the Supreme Court in Brazil's capital, had been demanding the overthrow of Bolsonaro's successor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Brazil's Congress and Supreme Court were ransacked that day by thousands of Bolsonaro supporters.

Rioters smashed windows, threw furniture into fountains, vandalised artworks and turned the Senate's central dais into a slide.

The riots deeply shook the nation which remains divided by leftist President Lula's narrow win over Bolsonaro in Brazil's October 2022 presidential race. The disorder drew inevitable comparisons to the invasion of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, by supporters of then-president Donald Trump.

Prosecutor Carlos Frederico Santos called the case a "milestone" for Brazil, which returned to democracy in the 1980s after two decades of military dictatorship.

"We have turned the page on the days of coups. Those who embrace the spurious idea that power can be won through violence and in violation of constitutional norms must respond for the resulting crimes," he told the court.

The lead judge on the case, Alexandre de Moraes, opened the session saying the Supreme Court would be considering a total of "232 cases involving the most serious alleged crimes, the first four of which we will begin trying today."

The four men on trial, aged between 24 and 52, are accused of crimes including armed criminal conspiracy, violent uprising against the rule of law and an attempted coup.

They each face a total of up to 30 years in prison.

They have denied the accusations against them, saying they believed the protests would be peaceful.