Brazil’s Supreme Court has sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison for heading a failed coup and the plot to assassinate then President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to retain power.
A panel of five justices handed down the verdict on Friday, just hours after they had found Mr Bolsonaro guilty of being in charge of the conspiracy to topple an elected government, with four of them voting to convict the former leader and one voting to acquit him.
Mr Bolsonaro’s conviction came months after he was charged by Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet in February for empowering the military and disbanding courts in an attempt to forcefully stay in office after he lost the 2022 election to Mr Lula.
The Supreme Court panel also barred the 70-year-old from running for public office until 2033. He was convicted alongside seven co-defendants, including his running mate and defence minister Walter Braga Netto and navy commander Almir Garnier Santos.
Mr Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing, dismissing the case as a witchhunt by the left wing to prevent him from contesting the 2026 presidential election, even though he had already been barred from public office on separate charges.
Reacting to the news, President Donald Trump, who had earlier imposed a 50 per cent tariff on Brazilian goods over the prosecution of Mr Bolsonaro, called the verdict “very surprising”, adding that “the case was very much like they tried to do with me. But they didn’t get away with it at all.”
Meanwhile, U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio said the Supreme Court “unjustly ruled to imprison former President Jair Bolsonaro” and threatened to “respond accordingly to this witch hunt”.
