BRASÍLIA — Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has exhausted his appeals, the country’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, and will begin his 27-year sentence for plotting a military coup to stay in power after his 2022 election loss.
In a final ruling issued Tuesday afternoon, the court upheld Bolsonaro’s conviction of attempting a coup, attempting the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law and other charges. Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has overseen Bolsonaro’s prosecution, ordered his sentence to commence in a specially prepared cell at federal police headquarters in Brasília. He is the first former president to be found guilty of attempting to subvert Latin America’s largest democracy.
Bolsonaro has been held in the “designated state-major room” since Saturday, when he was arrested after allegedly tampering with his ankle monitor in what authorities characterized as an attempt to avoid incarceration. His lawyers denied the allegation.
The 70-year-old former army officer, who for the past decade has been the face of the Brazilian right, was convicted in September of attempting a military coup in a plot that allegedly included plans to kill President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the man who defeated him in the closet election in the country’s history, and other officials.
Bolsonaro, who called the security of the country’s electoral system into question while still president, did not concede the vote and left Brazil before Lula’s inauguration. His campaign to stay in power culminated in his supporters storming the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court buildings a week after the inauguration to demand that he be reinstated.
The developments reminded Brazilians of efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump, a Bolsonaro ally, to deny the election of President Joe Biden.
Bolsonaro was convicted of attempting a coup, involvement in an armed criminal organization, attempting the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, aggravated damage of the state’s assets and deterioration of listed heritage.
Bolsonaro’s prosecution sparked diplomatic and economic backlash from the Trump administration. Trump imposed sanctions on Brazil, Moraes and other Supreme Court justices to pressure them to drop the charges against Bolsonaro.
But since his conviction, Trump appears to have softened his approach. The administration recently exempted dozens of Brazilian foods — including major exports such as coffee and beef — from 40 percent tariffs, and Trump has stopped mentioning his ally publicly.
Asked over the weekend about Bolsonaro’s arrest, Trump said it was “too bad.”
Before he was taken into custody Saturday, Bolsonaro was under house arrest. Earlier that day, the Supreme Court was alerted that he had tampered with the ankle monitor. Moraes said the tampering and calls by Bolsonaro’s son, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, for a vigil outside his condominium were “extremely serious indications of a possible escape attempt.”
In a video released by police, Bolsonaro admits he had used a hot soldering iron on the monitor. “I stuck a hot piece of metal on it out of curiosity,” he said. During a hearing on Saturday, he said he had had “hallucinations” and grown “paranoid” that the device contained a listening bug.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers asked the court to allow him to serve his sentence at home to protect his “fragile health.”
Bolsonaro has undergone six surgeries since he was stabbed while campaigning in 2018 and complains of persistent hiccups and vomiting. Medical reports submitted by his defense team to the court cite skin cancer, gastritis, a lung infection and complications from the attack.
Under Brazilian law, defendants sentenced to more than eight years must serve some time in prison. But as a former head of state, Bolsonaro will be held in the special cell, which includes a bed, a table and private bathroom.
Moraes justified the special treatment by citing the case of Lula, who was convicted of corruption in 2017.
Lula, accused of receiving kickbacks from a construction company, served 580 days in a federal police cell in Curitiba. The Supreme Court annulled his conviction in 2021. The U.N. Human Rights Committee found that the investigation and prosecution had violated Lula’s right to be tried by an impartial tribunal, his right to privacy and his political rights.
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