Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison on charges of attempting a military coup, shortly after a majority of a Supreme Court panel voted to convict him on Thursday.
Bolsonaro was found guilty by four of the five justices of attempting to unlawfully hold onto power following his loss to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the 2022 election.
There was sufficient proof, according to Justice Carmen Lucia, that Bolsonaro acted “with the purpose of eroding democracy and institutions.”
Justice Luiz Fux, a fourth judge, deviated from his peers and voted to exonerate the 70-year-old former president of all charges.
Bolsonaro, who is currently under house arrest, was convicted of five charges, including leading a “criminal organisation” to overthrow Lula in a military coup attempt. He faced a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.
Bolsonaro’s attorneys announced that they would appeal the sentence after Thursday’s ruling.
The former Brazilian president’s adviser Fabio Wajngarten posted his statement on X saying, “The defence considers the sentences handed down to be incredibly excessive and disproportionate and… will file the appropriate appeals, including at the international level.”
Despite being barred from running for president until 2030 by Brazil’s highest electoral court for disseminating false claims on the country’s electronic voting system, Bolsonaro has insisted he will run for president in 2026.
Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the former president’s son while speaking outside his father’s Brasilia house said, he was “holding his head high in the face of this persecution, because history will show that we are on the right side.”
He went on to say that his father’s supporters will use “all their might” to get Congress’s support for an amnesty bill.
Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp, Mauro Cid; his military adviser, Augusto Heleno Ribeiro; former Justice Minister Anderson Torres; former naval chief Almir Garnier Santos; former police officer Alexandre Ramagem; and former Defence Minister Paulo Sergio Nogueira were among the seven co-conspirators found guilty by the Supreme Court.
US President Donald Trump has referred to his ally’s trial as a “witch-hunt,” hit Brazil with 50 percent tariffs, sanctioned Alexandre de Moraes, the presiding judge, and revoked the visas of the majority of the high court’s members.
Trump called the ruling “very surprising.”
He described Bolsonaro’s legal troubles as “very much like they tried to do with me” and hailed him as a “good president” and “good man.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that the US would “respond accordingly to this witch-hunt.”
“The political persecutions by sanctioned human rights abuser Alexandre de Moraes continue, as he and others on Brazil’s supreme court have unjustly ruled to imprison former President Jair Bolsonaro,” he said.
In response, Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said that Rubio’s “threats” would not deter them.
After being elected to the back benches of Congress in 1990, during the early years of Brazil’s democracy, Bolsonaro, a former army captain and paratrooper—became known for his defence of the country’s two-decade military dictatorship.
His admiration for the military regime, which killed hundreds of Brazilians between 1964 and 1985, was never concealed.
Only “on the day that we break out in civil war here and do the job that the military regime didn’t do: killing 30,000” would Brazil change, he said in an interview. He was speaking of political rivals and leftists.
Eventually, he capitalised on the widespread protests that broke out throughout Brazil in 2014 amid the extensive “car wash” bribery scandal that claimed the lives of hundreds of politicians, including Lula, whose conviction was eventually annulled.
He became president in 2018 thanks to his antiestablishment rage, and scores of far-right MPs were elected on his support, obstructing Lula’s progressive agenda.
When Bolsonaro faced Lula in a close reelection campaign in 2022, an election the latter ultimately won—his remarks became more messianic, casting doubt on his readiness to accept the outcome.
“I have three alternatives for my future: being arrested, killed or victory. No man on Earth will threaten me,” he said during a meeting of evangelical Christian leaders in 2021.
Bolsonaro has a strong political base in Brazil, and the ruling is likely to cause a great deal of discontent.
Over the weekend, about 40,000 of his followers demonstrated in Brasilia’s streets to express their displeasure, bolstering his claims that he is the subject of political attacks.