Brazil’s ex-President Bolsonaro sentenced to more than 27 years in prison

Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years and three months of prison for an attempted coup d’état. The majority of the five-member chamber of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) spoke guilty to the 70-year-old, as the TV live broadcast showed. Bolsonaro is the first President of Brazil to be convicted of attempted to overthrow after his term. The ex-president himself had not personally appeared on the dock. Since the beginning of August he has been in the house arrest for violations. The verdict was originally scheduled for Friday.

According to the public prosecutor’s office and the judge, Bolsonaro had planned a coup for the government of his left successor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after his election defeat at the end of 2022 and allies. The aim was to impose a state of emergency and enforce new elections – but Bolsonaro did not win the support of military leadership.

On January 8, 2023, a few days after Lula took office, followers of the legal politician stormed the Congress, the Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace in Brasília. Even if Bolsonaro was not in Brazil himself that day, but in the USA, the court accuses him of an indirect participation in the events.

Bolsonaro’s lawyers rejected the allegations throughout the procedure and now announced that it would appeal. The imposed prison sentence of more than 27 years was “absurd and disproportionate,” said a statement by the lawyers, which Bolsonaro consultant Fabio Wajngarten published on Thursday (local time) in online service X. The defense would examine the reasoning and “appeal to the corresponding legal remedies, even at an international level,” it said.

Judge Moraes described Bolsonaro as “leader of a criminal organization” and listed numerous evidence of the attempted oversetting planning in detail. These included public attacks on the electoral system, secret ministerial meetings, meetings with ambassadors and designs of a overthrow decline as well as the violent riots of January 8. “It wasn’t a Sunday in the park, not a trip to Disneyland,” said Moraes regarding the storm on government buildings.

In addition to Bolsonaro, several high-ranking military and former cabinet members were convicted, including ex-defense Minister Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, marine chief Almir Garnier and Bolsonaros then security consultant Augusto Heleno. Among other things, they were charged with attempted coupons, participation in a criminal association and the damage to listed buildings.

Brazil is heavily polarized between the supporters of the left President Lula and the supporters of his right predecessor Bolsonaro. Many see criminal proceedings as politically motivated, others as proof of the strength of the institutions. According to experts, the coming weeks could be shaped by protests.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio unjustly named the decision of the Supreme Court in Brazil. The United States would “react appropriately to this witch hunt”, he wrote in the online service X. Bolsonaro is an ally of US President Donald Trump. The coup process against right -wing extremist politicians had triggered a diplomatic crisis between Brazil and the USA.