Ex-Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced Thursday to 27 years and three months in prison just hours after being convicted of a coup plot to hold onto office following his defeat in the 2022 election, giving a resounding rebuke to one of the globe’s most influential far-right populist politicians.
The guilty verdict by a bench of five judges on Brazil’s Supreme Court, who also concurred on the sentence, turned the 70-year-old Bolsonaro into the nation’s first convicted former president for assaulting democracy, and elicited criticism from the Trump administration.
“This criminal case is quite much a meeting between Brazil and its past, its present, and its future,” said Justice Carmen Lucia before she voted to convict Bolsonaro, alluding to a history marred by military coups and attempts to take down democracy.
There was more than enough evidence Bolsonaro, now under house arrest, did so “with the purpose of undermining democracy and institutions,” she added.
Four out of the five judges decided to sentence the ousted president on five counts of offenses: membership in a criminal organization; conspiring to overthrow democracy violently; staging a coup; and causing harm to public property and preserved cultural heritage.
The conviction of Bolsonaro, a former army captain who never suppressed his admiration for the military dictatorship responsible for killing hundreds of Brazilians between 1964 and 1985, is the culmination of legal condemnations of other far-right leaders this year, including France’s Marine Le Pen and the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte.
Brazil’s Bolsonaro sentenced 27 years after landmark
It could also further infuriate Bolsonaro’s close friend US President Donald Trump, who had labelled the case a “witch hunt” and retaliated by imposing tariff increases, sanctions on presiding judge, and cancellation of visas of most of the supreme court justices.
Questioned over the conviction Thursday, Trump reiterated his praise for Bolsonaro, terming the verdict “a terrible thing.”
“I think it’s very bad for Brazil,” he said.
Watching his father’s conviction from the United States, Brazilian Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro informed Reuters that he anticipated Trump would consider imposing additional sanctions on Brazil and its high court judges.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented on X that the court had “unjustly ruled,” further stating: “The United States will respond accordingly to this witch hunt.”
Brazil’s Foreign Ministry released a statement labeling Rubio’s remark as a threat that “assails Brazilian sovereignty and disregards the facts and the overwhelming evidence in the records.” The ministry added that Brazilian democracy would not be intimidated by the U.S.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also expressed that he does not fear new sanctions imposed by the U.S. in an interview to local TV channel Band just hours before Bolsonaro’s conviction was officially announced.
The ruling was not unanimous as Justice Luiz Fux on Wednesday defied his colleagues by acquitting the ex-president of all charges and challenging the jurisdiction of the court.
That one vote could unlock a route to challenges to the ruling, which might drive the end of the trial to the October 2026 presidential election. Bolsonaro has vowed repeatedly to be a candidate in that election despite being disqualified from holding office.
Read more: Brazil judge puts ex-president Bolsonaro under house arrest
Bolsonaro’s attorneys stated in a press release that the sentencing “was absurdly excessive” and said it would pursue the necessary appeals.
FROM THE BACK BENCHES TO THE PRESIDENCY
Bolsonaro’s conviction represents the low point in his path from the back benches of Congress to his building of a formidable conservative coalition that pushed the country’s nascent democratic institutions to their limits.
His political career started in the 1980s on the Rio de Janeiro city council following a short stint as an army paratrooper. He later worked as a congressman in Brasilia for almost three decades, where he became recognized very quickly for defending policies of the authoritarian regime.
In an interview, he contended that Brazil would change only “on the day that we break out in civil war here and do the job that the military regime didn’t do: killing 30,000.
Long relegated to fringe status, he eventually honed his message to trumpet anti-corruption and pro-family themes. He hit fertile soil when mass demonstrations broke out in Brazil in 2014 and 2015 as part of the sprawling “Car Wash” corruption scandal that implicated hundreds of politicians – including President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose own conviction was subsequently overturned.
Anti-establishment resentment paved the way for his successful 2018 presidential campaign, with scores of far-right and conservative legislators elected on his coat tails. They have transformed Congress into a lasting barrier to Lula’s progressive agenda.
Bolsonaro’s administration was also characterized by widespread distrust of vaccines during the pandemic and an encouragement of illicit mining and cattle ranching in the Amazon rainforest, where deforestation rose.
With the formidable challenge of facing Lula’s reelection bid in 2022 – which Lula successfully won – Bolsonaro’s words became steadily more messianic in tone and raised doubts about his willingness to concede.
“I have three options for what’s to come: being arrested, murdered, or triumph,” he told a gathering of evangelical pastors in 2021. “No man on this planet will intimidate me.”
In 2023, Brazil’s electoral court banned him from public office until 2030 for venting baseless allegations on Brazil’s electronic voting system.
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