Jair Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years in prison for plot for Brazil

The former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison after being found guilty of thinking of a military coup.

A panel of five Supreme Court judges handed over the sentence only hours after sentenced the former leader.

They ruled that he was guilty of leading a conspiracy aimed at holding him in power after losing the election in 2022 to his left rival Luis Inasio Lula da Silva.

Four of the judges found him guilty while one voted to justify him. Bolsonaro’s lawyers called the sentence “absurdly excessive” and said they would submit “the appropriate appeals”.

The Supreme Court Group also prohibited him from running for public office by 2033.

Bolsonaro, which was placed under house arrest after being considered the risk of flight, is not personally present at this last phase of the process.

But in the past, he said he was created to prevent him from running in the 2026 presidential election – although he was already banned from public office on individual charges. He also called him “Witches Hunt”.

His words had previously been voiced by US President Donald Trump, who imposed 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods, creating them as a revenge for the pursuit of Bolsonaro.

Responding to the guilty sentence, Trump said he had found him “very surprising” and compared it to his own experience: “It’s a lot as they try to do with me. But they didn’t go away at all.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Brazil Supreme Court “has unfairly ordered former President Jer Bolsonaro” and threatened to “answer this witch hunt accordingly.”

The Brazil Foreign Ministry responded quickly, publishing to X that “threats like those made today by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a statement that attacks Brazilian authority and ignores facts and convincing evidence, will not scare our democracy.”

Bolsonaro, who is 70 years old, is now facing the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison.

His lawyers are expected to claim that he should be kept under house arrest instead of being sent to prison – as well as pleading for a lower sentence.

They also said they would appeal against his sentence, but legal experts said it could be difficult, as this is usually possible only if two of the five judges voted to justify.

Bolsonaro was found guilty of five charges, all related to his attempt to cling to power after being beaten in the 2022 election.

But prosecutors said he had begun to plan to remain in power long before, offering a coup to military commanders and sowing unjustified doubts about the electoral system.

They also said that Bolsonaro was aware of a plan to kill Lula and his vice presidential ruling half, as well as justice of the Supreme Court.

The judges found that he had led a conspiracy and also condemned seven of his coins, including senior military officers. These include two former defense ministers, a former spy head and a former security minister.

Until the plot was able to attract enough support from the military to move forward, it ended with the storming of government buildings by Bolsonaro’s supporters on January 8, 2023, the judges have found.

The Order was quickly restored and over 1500 people were arrested.

But according to Alexander de Moraes, justice that led the process – Brazil approached the descent into authoritarianism.

“We slowly forget that Brazil has almost returned to its 20-year-old dictatorship, as a criminal organization consisting of a political group does not know how to lose elections,” he said before he voted guilty.

The recent history of Brazil and the decades he spent under military government were also summoned by justice Carmen Lucia, who voted with the decisive third “guilty” vote on Thursday.

She compared the attempts to coup with a “virus”, which, if left to get upset, could kill the society in which he has taken up.

The only disagreeing voice on the five-member panel was Luis Fuchs, who on Wednesday argued in an 11-hour speech that the accusations against Jair Bolsonaro were unfounded and voted for him to be justified.

But on Thursday, Carmen Lucia, the only woman of the group, insisted that Brazil’s democratic order was at risk and warned that “there is no immunity to authoritarianism.”