A panel of Brazil’s Supreme Court sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison for plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election.
Earlier, Bolsonaro was convicted by the Supreme Court of plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election, a powerful blow to the populist far-right movement he created.
The ruling by a panel of five justices on Brazil’s Supreme Court made Bolsonaro the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted for attacking democracy, and drew disapproval from US President Donald Trump.
“This criminal case is almost a meeting between Brazil and its past, its present and its future,” Justice Carmen Lucia said before her vote to convict Bolsonaro, referring to a history checkered with military coups and attempts to overthrow democracy.
There was ample evidence, she added, that Bolsonaro acted “with the purpose of eroding democracy and institutions.”
Four of the five judges voted to convict the former president of five crimes: taking part in an armed criminal organisation; attempting to violently abolish democracy; organising a coup; and damaging government property and protected cultural assets. One judge voted to acquit him.
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Inputs from Reuters