Former Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of backing a plan to poison his successor and current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as part of an attempted coup to remain in power.

Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet has formally charged Bolsonaro for attempting a coup to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat.

He said the plan also aimed at shooting dead Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a foe of the former president.

“The members of the criminal organisation structured at the presidential palace a plan 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 said on Wednesday (AEDT).

“The plan was conceived and taken to the knowledge of the president, and he agreed to it.”

In November, federal police filed an 884-page report with Gonet detailing the scheme.

They allege it involved systematically sowing distrust of the electoral system among the populace, drafting a decree to give the plot a veneer of legality, pressuring top military brass to go along with the plan, and inciting a riot in the capital.

The Supreme Court will analyse the charges. If they are accepted, Bolsonaro will stand trial.

The far-right leader denies wrongdoing.

“I have no concerns about the accusations, zero,” Bolsonaro said on a visit to the Senate in Brasilia.

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

A lawyer for Bolsonaro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

-AAP