The Supreme Federal Court of Brazil sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison for having planned a coup d'état against the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The sentence published this Thursday, September 11, came in the midst of an unprecedented trial in Brazil just over a year before the presidential elections, after a majority of votes were reached to convict the former president.
Bolsonaro was facing this legal process alongside seven collaborators. The defendants faced five charges, including coup d'état, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, and armed criminal organization. Judge Carmen Lucía voted to convict him on the charge of criminal organization, while other charges remain to be voted on. With the 3-1 vote, the Supreme Court's fifth judge in the case must still vote for the formal decision.
"I consider it proven that Jair Bolsonaro committed the crimes as the leader of a criminal organization," the judge said during her statement.
Initially, according to AFP publications, the accused would have included a plan to assassinate Lula, but this was not executed due to lack of support from the military leadership.
One of the first reactions came from the White House. US President Donald Trump called the conviction “very surprising” and his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, assured that the United States “will respond accordingly” to the “unjust” sentence.
Trump has already applied punitive tariffs on Brazilian products, arguing that there is a"witch hunt" against his ally.
Wearing a green polo shirt and black pants, the far-right leader was with his brother-in-law Eduardo Torres in the patio in front of his house in Brasilia before the session began, an AFP journalist observed.
Bolsonaro is “in very poor health,” his lawyer Paulo Cunha Bueno told reporters, when asked about the possibility of the defense requesting house arrest if the former president is sentenced to prison.
Another political figure who reacted to the conviction of the former Brazilian president was US Congressman Carlos Giménez, who shared several messages on his X account.
One of them said,"In the United States Congress, we denounce the political persecution of President Bolsonaro by the socialist regime of the corrupt criminal Lula da Silva."
Brazil's Supreme Court justices upheld the prosecution's accusation that the far-right leader participated in a conspiracy to remain in power after losing the 2022 election to Lula da Silva. The prosecution argued that the conspirators planned to assassinate Lula, Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin, and Judge De Moraes himself. The legal proceedings against former President Jair Bolsonaro have increased polarization in Brazil.
