Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison.
A panel of Brazilian Supreme Court justices on Thursday voted to convict former president Jair Bolsonaro of attempting a coup to remain in office despite his 2022 electoral defeat.
The far-right politician who governed Brazil between 2019 and 2022 was found guilty on five counts by three members of a five-justice panel.
Prosecutors charged Bolsonaro with attempting to stage a coup, being part of an armed criminal organisation, attempting violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, as well as being implicated in violence and posing a serious threat to the state’s assets and listed heritage.
Although his plot failed to enlist enough support from the military to go ahead, it did culminate in the storming of government buildings by Bolsonaro's supporters on 8 January 2023, the justices found.
“This criminal case is almost a meeting between Brazil and its past, its present, and its future,” Justice Carmen Lucia said before she voted to convict Bolsonaro of attempting a coup, a reference to previous attempts to overthrow democracy in the country’s history.
She added that Bolsonaro acted “with the purpose of eroding democracy and institutions”.
The 70-year-old is currently under house arrest. His lawyers have said that they will appeal the verdict to the full Supreme Court of 11 justices. Bolsonaro, who has denied any wrongdoing, has not attended the court and has sent his lawyers.
He faced a close re-election campaign against president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022. During this time, Bolsonaro’s comments took on an increasingly messianic quality, raising concerns about his willingness to accept the results.
“I have three alternatives for my future: being arrested, killed or victory,” he said, in remarks to a meeting of evangelical leaders in 2021. “No man on Earth will threaten me.”
US president Donald Trump said hours later that he was “very unhappy” with the conviction. Speaking to reporters as he departed the White House, he said he always found Bolsonaro to be “outstanding”.
In 2023, Brazil's electoral court barred the far-right politician from public office until 2030 for voicing unfounded claims about Brazil’s electronic voting system.
The ruling may push lawmakers allied to Bolsonaro to seek some amnesty for him through Congress.
A full debate on sentencing is expected for Friday; after that, the former leader could face increased pressure to pick a political heir to likely challenge Lula in the general elections next year. A conviction could also compel allies to seek some amnesty for the former president through Congress.
Bolsonaro’s conviction and its durability will be a test for the strategy that Brazil’s highest-ranking judges have adopted to protect the country’s democracy against what they describe as dangerous attacks by the far right.
Their targets included social media posts that they say spread disinformation about the electoral system, as well as politicians and activists. Sending a former president and his allies to jail for planning a coup amounts to its culmination.
Brazil has suffered more than a dozen attempted coups since 1889, when it became a republic after its last emperor, Pedro II, was overthrown.
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