Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced Thursday to 27 years and three months in prison for attempting a coup against Lula da Silva in 2022, according to the ruling of the first chamber of the Supreme Court (STF), which must now determine the prison sentence.
By a vote of 4 to 1, five judges decided to sentence the leader of Brazil's right-wing and far-right, accused of having led an armed criminal organization to cling to power after losing the 2022 elections to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
With this majority of 4 to 1, Bolsonaro will not be able to appeal the ruling before the full STF.
Along with Bolsonaro, the following were sentenced: Alexandre Ramagem, former director of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (ABIN); Almir Garnier, former commander of the Navy (24 years in prison); Anderson Torres, former Minister of Justice and former Secretary of Security of the Federal District (24 years in prison); Augusto Heleno, former Minister of the Office of Institutional Security (21 years in prison); Mauro Cid, former presidential advisor and whistleblower of the attempted coup; Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, former Minister of Defense (19 years in prison); and Walter Souza Braga Netto, former Chief of the General Staff (26 years in prison).
The judges have yet to discuss the sentencing, that is, the length of the sentences to be imposed on the convicted.
The final vote was cast by the president of the First Chamber, Cristiano Zanin, a former lawyer for current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, against whom Bolsonaro conspired after losing the 2022 election, according to the court's findings. The majority was completed by Alexandre de Moraes, Cármen Lúcia, and Flávio Dino. Meanwhile, Luiz Fux voted against the STF proceeding with the case.
“The evidence allows us to conclude that the defendants intended to break the democratic rule of law,” Zanin said in his vote, which resulted in a four-to-one majority convicting Bolsonaro and seven other defendants, including former ministers and former heads of the Armed Forces. In Bolsonaro's case, the accusation filed by the Attorney General's Office includes an aggravating factor, as it considers him the “head” of the “criminal organization” that tried to prevent Lula from taking office after his victory in the 2022 elections against the far-right leader.
According to the indictment filed by the Attorney General's Office and accepted by four of the five judges, the conspiracy began in June 2021, just over a year before the elections and when Lula was beginning to gain ground in the polls.
The plot unfolded in several phases and began with a harsh campaign to discredit the country's institutions and electoral system, led by Bolsonaro himself, according to the indictment.
The conspiracy went from words to deeds after Lula won the October 2022 elections, with intense protests, attacks thwarted by the police, and camps at the gates of the barracks in which thousands of Bolsonaristas demanded that the Army prevent Lula's inauguration.
The progressive leader finally assumed power on January 1, 2023, and a week later, thousands of far-right activists emerged from one of those camps in Brasilia to violently storm the presidential headquarters, parliament, and the Supreme Court itself.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, this action was the culmination of a coup plot that, according to the indictment, was"led" and personally directed by Bolsonaro, with the goal of"remaining in power" and establishing "a dictatorship" in Brazil.
