A panel of Brazil’s Supreme Court Judges has sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months prison after finding him guilty of an attempted coup to retain his grip on power after losing the Presidential election.
By James Blears
A panel of Brazil’s Supreme Court Judges has sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison after finding him guilty of an attempted coup to retain his grip on power after losing the Presidential election in 2022.
The five charges he was convicted of stem from conspiracies following that loss, and one of those accusations says there was a plot to kill the winner, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, better known as Lula. Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in 2023, and after the chaos, looting, damage and destruction had subsided, more than 1,500 people were arrested.
Chief Justice Luis Roberto Barroso says this overall and far reaching case is “a watershed moment in Brazilian history.” Four of the five presiding judges found Bolsonaro guilty. Six of seven co-conspirators have also received long sentences. The other cooperated with evidence. Throughout, Bolsonaro has always denied all the charges, calling the entire procedure, which he did not attend, a politically orchestrated witch-hunt.
His lawyers are now appealing and say he should remain under house arrest rather than languish in prison. His health has been delicate and unstable, following a stabbing which nearly killed him when he was campaigning to become President. Since then, he’s undergone several life-saving operations. Even before all of these latest developments, he’d already been banned from running in any election until 2033.
Bolsonaro is a former army captain, but the Brazilian Military never wavered in their support for the status quo of bedrock democracy. They stood firm during the fleeting unrest and refused to join an insurrection, so normality was swiftly restored.
Bolsonaro is 70 years old. He now faces the rest of his life in prison or under house arrest, which authorities insist prevented him from fleeing the country, something he strenuously denies he had any intention of ever doing.
