A judge in Brazilian ex-president Jair Bolsonaro's coup trial voted Tuesday to convict him, with four others yet to give their verdicts in a case that has angered the right-winger's US ally Donald Trump.

Bolsonaro, 70, risks a prison term of over 40 years if at least three of the five judges find him guilty of seeking to claw back power after his defeat in 2022 elections to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the first to cast his vote in proceedings that could last until Friday, said: "Brazil nearly returned to dictatorship" after 40 years of democracy.

He said the evidence showed the accused were "part of a criminal organization led by Jair Messias Bolsonaro" and had in fact "committed all the criminal offenses charged by the Attorney General.

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