Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court has sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison after finding him guilty of plotting to overturn the results of the 2022 election.
The five-member panel of justices ruled 4–1 that Bolsonaro led an organised attempt to subvert democracy after his defeat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Prosecutors said the scheme to rally military support for a coup collapsed after top brass refused to back it.
Bolsonaro, 70, was convicted on charges including attempting a violent abolition of democratic rule, plotting a coup, leading an armed criminal organisation, and inciting the January 2023 storming of government buildings in Brasília.
Justice Cristiano Zanin, delivering the decisive vote, said: “An armed criminal organisation was formed by the defendants, who must be convicted based on the factual circumstances proven.”
The former leader, who is currently under house arrest, has denied wrongdoing and insists he is the victim of political persecution. His lawyers immediately vowed to appeal both domestically and at international forums, calling the sentence “excessive.”
Reactions to the verdict have been swift. Supporters of President Lula hailed the judgment as a landmark defence of Brazilian democracy, while Bolsonaro loyalists condemned it as a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
In Washington, the Biden administration voiced concern but stressed that Brazil’s judiciary is independent. Bolsonaro’s allies in Congress are already pushing for an amnesty bill to overturn the conviction, while analysts warn the verdict could deepen divisions across the country.
Bolsonaro, who served from 2019 to 2022, is the fourth former president convicted since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1985. He is barred from contesting elections until 2030 due to earlier rulings by the electoral court.
The case has shaken Brazilian politics and put the country’s institutions on a collision course with one of its most polarising figures.
