Brasilia (AFP) – Brazil's Supreme Court voted unanimously on November 7 to reject an appeal and uphold the 27-year sentence of former President Jair Bolsonaro for attempting a coup d'état after the 2022 elections.
First modification: 11/07/2025 - 19:23 Last modification: 11/07/2025 - 23:54
The far-right leader was found guilty in September of having operated to prevent the inauguration of the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after losing the elections.
In the appeal, the lawyers alleged "deep injustices" and "contradictions" in the ruling that has the 70-year-old politician close to going to jail. The defense claimed alleged obstacles to exercising their function during the trial and sought to reduce the sentence.
The four judges of the first chamber of the Supreme Federal Court voted against the appeal, in a session that takes place virtually.
The result will not be official until the end of the deadline established by the court, at midnight on November 14.
Unanimous rejection
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, in charge of the case, was the first to rule and rejected all the defense arguments.
In an extensive 141-page document accessed by AFP, Moraes reiterated Bolsonaro's role as the leader of a criminal organization that, together with several collaborators, conspired to attack the democratic rule of law.
He also reaffirmed his actions as an instigator of the events of January 8, 2023, when hundreds of his followers attacked the headquarters of public authorities in Brasilia.
The magistrate denied the existence of "curtailment of the defense", pointing out that all the evidence was made available to the lawyers.
And he ruled out reducing the punishment, even arguing that Bolsonaro's advanced age had already been considered a mitigating factor.
"The sentence based all the stages of calculating the sentence," Moraes wrote.
The other three judges voted in the same direction throughout the day.
The former president (2019-2022) awaits the decision under preventive house arrest and is prohibited from giving public statements or using social networks.
If the result is unfavorable, there is still another appeal, but this can be rejected without being put to a vote.
In that case, the sentence would begin to apply and Bolsonaro could go to prison.
Due to his health problems, the defense can ask the court to allow him to serve his sentence at home, as happened with former president Fernando Collor de Mello (1990-1992).
In May, he obtained house arrest for an eight-year sentence for corruption.
health problems
Bolsonaro suffers several complications resulting from a stab wound to the belly that he received in 2018 during an event during his presidential campaign. He was also recently diagnosed with skin cancer, although the lesions were removed.
After the conviction, Bolsonarism promoted an amnesty bill in Congress that would benefit the former president and the participants in the riots on January 8.
However, the initiative deflated after large protests in several cities in Brazil.
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The trial against the greatest leader of the Brazilian right advances while Brazil and the United States rebuild their bilateral relationship, strained precisely by this trial.
A campaign in the United States by Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the former president, contributed to Donald Trump imposing punitive tariffs of 50% on Brazilian exports.
Lula met Trump in October in Malaysia to discuss the tariffs and anticipated "good deals for both countries."
On November 6, Eduardo Bolsonaro met in Washington with the Hungarian Prime Minister, the ultra-conservative Viktor Orban, who expressed his "firm" support for the family.
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"Keep fighting!: Political witch hunts have no place in democracy," Orban wrote in X.
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