Brazilian ex-President sentenced to 27 years jail for coup

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years in jail for attempting to overthrow the Government.

The far-right politician lost the Presidency to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022. He was later charged over an attempted coup.

Bolsonaro was found guilty in Brazil’s Supreme Court on Thursday, with four out of five judges voting to convict him.

Bolsonaro, who has always denied any wrongdoing, is expected to launch an appeal.

Background

Bolsonaro was elected President in 2019, after serving in the army during Brazil’s decades-long military dictatorship, and in the country’s Congress.

His conservative policies and populist campaign style have led to him being called the ‘Trump of the Tropics’.

As president, Bolsonaro relaxed gun laws, pared back climate change initiatives, and intensified abortion restrictions.

Throughout his presidency, Bolsonaro openly criticised the court and voting processes.

He later refused to accept the results of the 2022 election, which he lost to left-wing rival Lula da Silva.

Following the election, Bolsonaro’s supporters tried to convince the military to overturn the result by camping outside army barracks.

Then, after Lula’s inauguration in January 2023, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed Brazil’s Congress, Presidential Palace and Supreme Court.

Bolsonaro was in the U.S. at the time.

The coup

Last year, investigators alleged Bolsonaro and seven members of his inner circle had planned a coup.

It allegedly involved assassinating both President Lula and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

The group’s plan involved stoking public distrust in the electoral system, announcing Bolsonaro as the rightful president, securing the army’s cooperation, and inciting a riot.

The plan was allegedly abandoned because the group did not have army support.

Trial

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Bolsonaro fought the charges of attempting a coup, involvement in a criminal organisation, attempting to abolish democracy, and damaging state assets and heritage.

He denied the allegations, saying: “Those in power are focused on ensuring I spend the rest of my life in prison so I can never run for president again… Everyone knows that if I were allowed to run, I would win.”

Bolsonaro was already banned from running for President again until 2030 due to abuse of power during his first term.

Ahead of the trial, Bolsonaro was placed under house arrest.

He allegedly addressed protesters at a political rally via a phone call last month, in breach of court orders.

Police seized Bolsonaro’s phone, and the court ordered him not to leave his home before the trial.

At the time, the Trump administration accused Brazil’s Supreme Court of using its power to “silence opposition and threaten democracy.”

Verdict

On Thursday (local time) A panel of Supreme Court justices found Bolsonaro guilty of attacking democracy, damaging government property, and involvement in an armed criminal organisation.

Justice de Moraes said Bolsonaro had begun laying the groundwork to stay in office illegally during his Presidential term.

“Brazil almost returned to a dictatorship that lasted 20 years… because of a criminal organisation built by a political group that doesn’t know how to lose elections,” he said.

Of the five judges on the panel, one, Justice Luiz Fux, voted earlier this week to acquit Bolsonaro.

Fux argued the defence hadn’t been given enough time to consider the evidence, and that the case shouldn’t have come before the Supreme Court in the first place.

He also argued Bolsonaro was not responsible for his supporters’ riots in January 2023.