Brazil’s Supreme Court on Thursday sentenced firebrand ex-president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison for coup plotting at the end of a landmark trial that divided the nation and drew fury from US President Donald Trump.
The sentence could see the 70-year-old far-right leader spend the rest of his days in jail.
Judges voted 4-1 to convict Bolsonaro of plotting to overthrow Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva following his October 2022 election defeat by the left-winger.
Bolsonaro, who served a single term in office before losing a presidential election, can appeal the verdict.
Washington was quick to respond to the conviction of the man dubbed “the Trump of the tropics.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States “will respond accordingly” to what he called a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
Trump, who had levied steep tariffs on Brazil as punishment over Bolsonaro’s prosecution, labelled the verdict “very surprising.”
“That’s very much like they tried to do with me, but they didn’t get away with it at all,” he told reporters, calling Bolsonaro “a good man.”
While the Supreme Court had already garnered the simple majority of three votes needed for his conviction at the fourth vote, it only became final after the last of the five judges issued his decision.
“An armed criminal organisation was formed by the defendants, who must be convicted based on the factual circumstances I consider proven,” said the fifth judge, Cristiano Zanin, Lula’s former lawyer.
Bolsonaro’s seven co-defendants, including former ministers and military chiefs, were also convicted.
Bolsonaro, 70, a former Army captain who has repeatedly voiced nostalgia for Brazil’s 1964-1985 dictatorship, protests his innocence and claims to be the victim of political persecution.
‘Political’
Bolsonaro’s conviction came after one of the biggest, most divisive trials in Brazil’s recent history, which ended with a nail-biting vote that stretched over four days.
Bolsonaro himself did not attend the verdict hearings in the capital Brasília, instead following the proceedings from his residence, where he is detained under house arrest.
Across the nation, Brazilians were glued to the proceedings on TV and social media. In one Brasília bar, patrons watching the trial on a giant screen burst into applause after he was convicted.
“After so much waiting, this despicable individual is being sent to jail,” translator Virgilio Soares, 46, said.
But Germano Cavalcante, a 60-year-old civil engineer, called the trial “unfair.”
Apart from heading a “criminal organisation,” Bolsonaro was charged with knowing of a plan to assassinate Lula, Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
He was also convicted of inciting the violent 2023 storming of the Supreme Court, presidential palace and Congress by hundreds of his supporters, a week after Lula was inaugurated as his successor.
A country divided
The trial has driven a deep wedge through Brazilian society, between those primarily on the left who saw it as a vital test of the country’s democracy, from those mainly on the right who viewed it as a political show trial.
Fearing his conviction, the ex-president’s allies have been pushing Congress to pass an amnesty law to save him from prison.
The case has led to an unprecedented crisis in relations between the United States and longtime ally Brazil.
Besides the tariffs punishment, Washington has also sanctioned Moraes and other Supreme Court judges.
Brazil’s government on Thursday rejected “threats” from Rubio and vowed to “respond accordingly.”
Writing on X, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry said that “threats like those made today by the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio…will not intimidate our democracy.”
– TIMES/AFP
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by Ramon Sahmkow, AFP
