Brazil’s Supreme Court sentences Bolsonaro to 27 years in coup plot case

Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court sentenced former president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and 3 months in prison after convicting him of attempting to carry out a coup d’état to block the transfer of power to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The ruling, delivered Thursday by the court’s First Chamber, marks the first time in Brazilian history that a former president has been convicted of trying to overthrow democracy.

The Attorney General’s Office accused Bolsonaro and seven allies of conspiring between late 2022 and early 2023 to keep Bolsonaro in power despite losing the presidential election.

By a 4–1 vote, the five-judge panel found Bolsonaro guilty on multiple charges, including attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, armed criminal organization, damage to federal property, and deterioration of protected heritage.

Bolsonaro’s sentence includes 24 years and 9 months of imprisonment and 2 years and 6 months of detention, which under Brazilian law means he must begin serving time in a closed regime, according to g1.

The same panel also convicted seven former aides and military officials linked to Bolsonaro, including former intelligence chief Alexandre Ramagem, former Justice Minister Anderson Torres, and former Defense Minister Paulo Sérgio Nogueira. Sentencing for these defendants is still being finalized.

The First Chamber of the Supreme Federal Court is composed of justices Alexandre de Moraes, Flávio Dino, Luiz Fux, Cármen Lúcia, and Cristiano Zanin.

Bolsonaro, a far-right populist who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022, narrowly lost reelection to Lula da Silva in October 2022. In January 2023, thousands of his supporters stormed government buildings in Brasília, echoing the January 6 attack in Washington, D.C., as they attempted to overturn the election results.