Brazil's ex-president Bolsonaro gets 27 years in prison

Far-right leader convicted of plotting a coup to stay in power after losing 2022 election

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BRASILIA — A panel of Brazil's Supreme Court on Sept 11 sentenced former president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison for plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election.

Earlier on Sept 11, four of the five judges voted to convict the former president of five crimes: taking part in an armed criminal organization, attempting to violently abolish democracy, organizing a coup, damaging government property, and damaging protected cultural assets. One judge voted to acquit him.

It was a powerful blow to the populist far-right movement he created, and the ruling also makes Bolsonaro the first former president in the country's history to be convicted over attacking democracy.

The conviction of Bolsonaro, a former army captain who never hid his admiration for the military dictatorship that killed hundreds of Brazilians between 1964 and 1985, echoes legal condemnations this year for far-right leaders elsewhere, including France's Marine Le Pen and the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte.

It is likely to further enrage Bolsonaro's close ally, US President Donald Trump, who has called the case a "witch hunt" and slammed Brazil with tariff hikes, sanctions against the presiding judge, and the revocation of visas for most members of the high court.