Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison on Thursday for overseeing a failed coup plot after losing the 2022 elections, a landmark ruling for Latin America’s largest nation.
Mr. Bolsonaro was convicted of orchestrating a vast conspiracy that included overturning the vote, dismantling courts, handing special powers to the military and assassinating the president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who won the election.
Mr. Bolsonaro denied plotting a coup or planning to kill his political rival. He accused the Supreme Court justice who oversaw his trial, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, of unfairly targeting him and his right-wing movement.
The ruling marks the first time that Brazil, a nation with a long history of coups, has held accountable a leader who tried to subvert its democracy. But it is far from clear whether Mr. Bolsonaro will actually end up behind bars.
His conviction could also worsen the diplomatic tension between Brazil and the United States, which escalated after President Trump’s tried to help Mr. Bolsonaro, an ally, by applying tariffs and sanctions on Brazil.
Bolsonaro can appeal his sentence but not the verdict.
Mr. Bolsonaro’s lawyers expressed “indignation” at the verdict and called the sentence “absurdly excessive and disproportionate,” vowing to file appeals in both Brazilian and international courts.
The case was overseen by a five-member panel of Supreme Court justices. Four voted to convict, and one voted to acquit. Under Brazilian law, the four guilty votes means Mr. Bolsonaro cannot directly appeal the verdict to the full bench of 11 Supreme Court justices. To appeal, two justices would have needed to vote for acquittal.
Mr. Bolsonaro’s defense team does have the right to file two rounds of legal motions with the high court, which could result in a reduced sentence or changes to how his sentencing is applied.
The same five justices who ruled on the case will also review these legal challenges. The first appeal must be filed within five days of the official publication of the Supreme Court decision, expected within 60 days.
The sole dissenting justice questioned why the case was not being decided by the full bench. This, analysts say, may give Mr. Bolsonaro a window to appeal his case on technical grounds. But most of the justices have consistently backed Justice Moraes’ decisions, so it’s likely the conviction would still be upheld.
It’s unlikely that Mr. Bolsonaro will spend years in prison.
Mr. Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison. But it is unlikely that he will spend a long time behind bars.
His lawyers are expected to request that Mr. Bolsonaro, 70, serve out his sentence at home because of health problems that he attributes to complications from a stabbing attack on the campaign trail in 2018.
Mr. Bolsonaro is already under house arrest, wearing an ankle monitor and watched closely by the police because Justice Moraes deemed him a flight risk.
This is not the first time a former Brazilian president has faced prison. Mr. Lula, who was previously in office from 2003 to 2010, was sentenced to more than a decade in prison in 2017 after he was convicted of receiving kickbacks from a construction company.
After Mr. Lula spent 580 days in prison, the Supreme Court nullified the verdict after finding that the judge overseeing the original case had been biased. Another former president, Fernando Collor, is also serving a prison sentence for corruption at home because of health issues.
The verdict may further test U.S.-Brazil relations.
For weeks, Mr. Trump had tried to bully Brazil into dropping the case against Mr. Bolsonaro, a political ally.
Citing Mr. Bolsonaro’s case, he has applied 50 percent tariffs on Brazil, even though the United States has a trade surplus with Latin America’s largest economy. And even as Brazil has weathered the impact of the levies by finding new markets, the tariffs have hurt some key industries, while also sharply pushing up prices for American consumers of Brazilian products like coffee and beef.
And Mr. Trump has also imposed harsh human rights sanctions against Justice Moraes, accusing him of censoring conservative voices.
Following Thursday’s verdict, Mr. Trump said he was “very unhappy” about Mr. Bolsonaro’s conviction. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the court’s decision unjust, casting it as political persecution. “The United States will respond accordingly to this witch hunt,” he said on social media.
When asked about possible backlash to the ruling, Mr. Lula insisted that he is not afraid of further U.S. sanctions and said Brazil was ready to retaliate if necessary. “One country can’t be interfering in the sovereign decisions of another country,” he told a Brazilian news outlet after Mr. Bolsonaro was convicted.
Brazil has, however, begun preparing for further punitive measures from the United States aimed at other members of Brazil’s highest court or the nation’s financial institutions. It has also moved quickly to expand trade with other countries, such as India, Mexico and China.
Ana Ionova is a contributor to The Times based in Rio de Janeiro, covering Brazil and neighboring countries.
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