Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting Brazil coup
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison after being found guilty of plotting a military coup by a panel of five Supreme Court justices. The justices convicted the former leader just hours prior to handing down the sentence.
They ruled that Bolsonaro was guilty of leading a conspiracy aimed at maintaining power after losing the 2022 election to left-wing rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Four justices found him guilty, while one voted for acquittal. Bolsonaro’s lawyers have deemed the sentence “absurdly excessive” and intend to file appeals.
The Supreme Court panel also prohibited Bolsonaro from seeking public office until 2033.
Bolsonaro, who was placed under house arrest due to being deemed a flight risk, did not attend the final phase of the trial in person.
However, he has previously stated that the trial was designed to prevent him from participating in the 2026 presidential election, despite having already been barred from public office on separate charges.
He has also described the trial as a “witch hunt”. His sentiments have been echoed by US President Donald Trump, who imposed 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods, framing them as retaliation for Bolsonaro’s prosecution.
Reacting to the guilty verdict, Trump expressed surprise and drew parallels with his own experience:
“That’s very much like they tried to do with me. But they didn’t succeed at all.” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that Brazil’s Supreme Court had “unjustly ruled to imprison former President Jair Bolsonaro” and threatened to “respond accordingly to this witch hunt”.
Brazil’s foreign ministry swiftly responded, posting on X that “threats like the one made today by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a statement that attacks a Brazilian authority and ignores the facts and the compelling evidence on record, will not intimidate our democracy”.
Bolsonaro, 70, now faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison.
Bolsonaro’s legal team is anticipated to argue that he should be subject to house arrest rather than imprisonment, in addition to requesting a more lenient sentence.
Furthermore, they have expressed their intention to appeal the conviction, although experts in the field have noted that this may be a difficult endeavor, as appeals are generally only feasible if two of the five justices have voted for acquittal.
Bolsonaro was found guilty of five charges, each related to his attempts to cling to power subsequent to his loss in the 2022 election.
Prosecutors, however, have alleged that he commenced plotting to remain in power considerably earlier, proposing a coup to military commanders and spreading baseless doubts regarding the electoral system.
Furthermore, it was alleged that Bolsonaro knew of a plan to assassinate Lula and his vice-presidential running mate, as well as a Supreme Court Justice.
The justices found him guilty of leading a conspiracy and convicted seven of his co-conspirators, including senior military officers.
Two former defence ministers, a former spy chief and a former security minister were among those convicted.
The plot failed to enlist sufficient support from the military to proceed, but it did culminate in the storming of government buildings by Bolsonaro’s supporters on 8 January 2023, as determined by the justices. Order was quickly restored, and more than 1,500 people were arrested.
According to Alexandre de Moraes, the justice who oversaw the trial, Brazil narrowly avoided descending into authoritarianism.
“We are slowly forgetting that Brazil almost returned to its 20-year dictatorship because a criminal organisation, comprised of a political group, doesn’t know how to lose elections,” he said before casting his guilty vote.
Brazil’s recent history and the decades it spent under military rule were also invoked by Justice Cármen Lúcia, who cast the decisive third “guilty” vote on Thursday.
She compared the attempted coup to a “virus”, which, if left to fester, can kill the society in which it has taken hold in.
The sole dissenting voice on the five-member panel was Luiz Fux, who argued in an 11-hour speech on Wednesday that the accusations against Jair Bolsonaro were unfounded and voted for him to be acquitted.
But on Thursday, Cármen Lúcia, the only woman on the panel, insisted that Brazil’s democratic order had been at risk and warned that “there was no immunity to authoritarianism”.
Source: BBC.com
