BRAZIL’S Supreme Court has handed former president Jair Bolsonar a 27-year prison sentence for attempting to stage a coup.
The ruling concluded a landmark trial that has polarised the country and sparked outrage from the United States.
In a four-one ruling on Thursday, the judges found the 70-year-old far-right former leader guilty of conspiring to topple Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after losing to the leftist leader in the October 2022 election.
Prosecutors said the plan failed only due to a lack of support from military top brass.
Although Bolsonaro’s conviction was secured once the fourth judge delivered the decisive third vote, the ruling was finalised only after all five judges had cast their decisions.
“An armed criminal organisation was formed by the defendants, who must be convicted based on the factual circumstances I consider proven,” said the fifth judge, Cristiano Zanin, Lula’s former lawyer.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers condemned the ruling as “incredibly excessive” and said they would appeal, “including at the international level.”
In addition to leading a “criminal organisation,” the former president faced charges of being aware of a plot to assassinate Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre Moraes.
Bolsonaro was likewise convicted of inciting the January 2023 riots, in which hundreds of his supporters stormed Brazil’s Supreme Court, Presidential Palace, and Congress just a week after Lula’s inauguration.
He did not appear in court for the verdict, instead monitoring the proceedings from his home in Brasília, where he remains under house arrest.
Alongside Bolsonaro are seven co-defendants, including ex-ministers and senior military officials who were also found guilty, while the former army captain, who led Brazil from 2019 to 2022, insisted he was being targeted by political persecution.
Bolsonaro’s son, Flavio Bolsonaro, a senator, said his father was “holding his head high in the face of this persecution, because history will show that we are on the right side.”
He added that his allies would fight “all their might” to rally congressional backing for an amnesty bill.
Bolsonaro’s conviction followed one of the most consequential and polarising trials in Brazil’s recent history, culminating in a tense four-day vote.
The United States swiftly reacted to the conviction of the man once nicknamed “the Trump of the tropics” after his 2019 election victory.
Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, warned that the United States “will take appropriate action” in response to what he described as a politically driven ‘witch hunt.’
Brazil’s Foreign Ministry fired back, declaring it would not be cowed by Rubio’s ‘threats.’
Trump, who imposed heavy tariffs on Brazil in retaliation for Bolsonaro’s prosecution, described the verdict as “quite surprising.”
He praised Bolsonaro as a “good president” and “good man” and said his legal woes were “very much like they tried to do with me.”
In addition to imposing tariffs, Washington has also slapped sanctions on Moraes and other Supreme Court justices.
Since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1985 following two decades of military rule, Bolsonaro has become the fourth former president to be convicted.
Lula served 19 months in prison between 2018 and 2019 on corruption charges that were later annulled.
The 79-year-old veteran politician, whose popularity had waned ahead of Bolsonaro’s trial, has since gained a boost from the confrontation with the United States.
Positioning himself as the defender of Brazil’s sovereignty against what he calls US interference, he has also signaled his intention to seek re-election next year.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.