On live television for the past two weeks, Brazil has watched five Supreme Court justices convict former President Jair Bolsonaro of attempting a coup and sentence him to 27 years in prison. He could report to prison next month.
At the same time, in private meetings across a plaza from the trial, some members of Brazil’s Congress have been discussing how to free him.
The debate is over whether to grant Mr. Bolsonaro and his fellow defendants amnesty — absolving them of their crimes of trying to overturn the 2022 election — and it has been churning in Brazil for weeks, casting a shadow over a young democracy with a long history of coups.
Members of Congress have already been circulating legislation, television commentators have been speculating about the chances and dueling protesters on each side have been chanting for and against it. Activists have even projected “no amnesty” with the Brazilian flag on Tower Bridge in London.
Amnesty has quickly become so central to the national conversation in Brazil that, as Mr. Bolsonaro was being tried this past week, it was the elephant in the courtroom: Sure, the former president was about to be convicted — but for how long?
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