Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison after the country’s Supreme Court found him guilty of plotting a military coup to remain in power following his 2022 election defeat.
A panel of five Supreme Court justices delivered the sentence just hours after convicting Bolsonaro on five charges tied to his efforts to overturn the election result. Four justices voted to convict, while one dissented. Bolsonaro’s lawyers called the punishment “absurdly excessive” and said they would file “the appropriate appeals.”
The court also barred Bolsonaro from holding public office until 2033. The 70-year-old former leader, who was placed under house arrest earlier this year after being deemed a flight risk, did not attend the final hearing. He has repeatedly dismissed the proceedings as a “witch hunt” intended to block him from running in Brazil’s 2026 presidential election, despite already being banned from office on separate charges.
His words have often been echoed by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who imposed 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian goods, describing them as retaliation for Bolsonaro’s prosecution. Responding to Thursday’s verdict, Trump said he found it “very surprising” and added, “That’s very much like they tried to do with me. But they didn’t get away with it at all.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also condemned the ruling, saying Brazil’s Supreme Court had “unjustly ruled to imprison former President Jair Bolsonaro” and warning that the United States would “respond accordingly to this witch hunt.” Brazil’s foreign ministry fired back on X, writing that “threats like the one made today by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a statement that attacks a Brazilian authority and ignores the facts and the compelling evidence on record, will not intimidate our democracy.”
Bolsonaro’s coup trial gripped Brazil for months and has sharply divided the country. Prosecutors accused him of orchestrating a broad conspiracy to cling to power after losing to his leftist rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. They said he had discussed a coup with military commanders, spread false claims about Brazil’s electronic voting system, and knew of a plot to assassinate Lula, his running mate, and a Supreme Court justice.
The justices said Bolsonaro’s actions culminated in the violent storming of government buildings in Brasília by his supporters on Jan. 8, 2023. More than 1,500 people were arrested in the unrest, which judges said brought Brazil to the brink of authoritarian rule.
“We are slowly forgetting that Brazil almost returned to its 20-year dictatorship because a criminal organisation, comprised of a political group, doesn’t know how to lose elections,” said Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the trial.
Justice Cármen Lúcia, whose decisive vote secured the conviction, compared the attempted coup to a “virus” that, if unchecked, could destroy democracy. “There was no immunity to authoritarianism,” she warned.
The lone dissenter, Justice Luiz Fux, argued during an 11-hour speech that the allegations were unproven and called for Bolsonaro to be acquitted.
Legal experts say Bolsonaro’s path to overturning the verdict will be narrow. Appeals are typically only considered if at least two of the five justices vote to acquit — something that did not happen in this case. His legal team is expected to push for him to remain under house arrest rather than be sent to prison while they fight to reduce his sentence.
Bolsonaro, who once positioned himself as a defender of law and order, now faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars.