Brazil’s former president Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years

Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison after the Supreme Court found him guilty of plotting a military coup to remain in power following his 2022 election defeat. The ruling was delivered Thursday by a panel of five justices, with four voting to convict and one voting to acquit. The sentence also bars Bolsonaro, 70, from holding public office until 2033. Prosecutors said Bolsonaro conspired to overturn the election results, proposed a coup to military commanders, and spread false claims about Brazil’s voting system. They also argue

Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison after the Supreme Court found him guilty of plotting a military coup to remain in power following his 2022 election defeat. The ruling was delivered Thursday by a panel of five justices, with four voting to convict and one voting to acquit. The sentence also bars Bolsonaro, 70, from holding public office until 2033. Prosecutors said Bolsonaro conspired to overturn the election results, proposed a coup to military commanders, and spread false claims about Brazil’s voting system. They also argued he was aware of plans to assassinate President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, his running mate, and a Supreme Court justice. Bolsonaro was convicted on five charges, along with seven allies, including two former defense ministers, a former spy chief, and a former security minister. Although the coup attempt did not gain enough military support, justices said it culminated in the January 8, 2023, storming of government buildings by Bolsonaro supporters. More than 1,500 people were arrested after the unrest. Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the trial, said Brazil had narrowly avoided a return to dictatorship. “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. Justice Cármen Lúcia, casting the decisive vote, compared the attempted coup to a disease. “It is like a virus which, if left to fester, can kill the society in which it has taken hold,” she said. Bolsonaro, placed under house arrest earlier this year as a flight risk, did not attend the sentencing. His lawyers called the ruling “absurdly excessive” and said they would appeal. Legal experts say overturning the conviction will be difficult because only one justice voted to acquit. Bolsonaro has dismissed the case as a “witch hunt” aimed at preventing him from returning to office, despite already being banned from running due to separate charges. The verdict has drawn international reactions. U.S. president Donald Trump called it “very surprising” and compared it to his own legal battles. “That’s very much like they tried to do with me. But they didn’t get away with it at all,” Trump said. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the court had “unjustly ruled to imprison former President Jair Bolsonaro” and warned Washington would “respond accordingly.” Brazil’s foreign ministry condemned Rubio’s remarks, writing on X: “Threats like the one made today by U.S. 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.”