Brazil's former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to more than 27 years in prison for plotting a military coup and attempting to 'annihilate' the country's democracy after losing the 2022 election. The Supreme Court ruling on Thursday saw four of the five judges find him guilty of crimes including coup d'état and violently trying to abolish Brazil's democratic institutions.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, delivering the sentence, stated that Bolsonaro sought to 'annihilate the essential pillars of the democratic rule-of-law state' with the greatest consequence being 'the return of dictatorship to Brazil'. Judge Cármen Lúcia Antunes Rocha denounced the attempt to 'sow the malignant seed of anti-democracy' but celebrated that 'Brazilian democracy was not shaken'.
Two other judges, Moraes and Flávio Dino, had earlier declared the 70-year-old politician guilty of leading what they called a 'criminal organisation' that aimed to plunge the nation back into dictatorship. The plot allegedly unfolded between July 2021 and January 2023, culminating in the 8 January 2023 uprising when Bolsonaro supporters ransacked government buildings.
One judge, Luiz Fux, voted to acquit Bolsonaro, claiming there was 'absolutely no proof' of his involvement in an alleged plot to assassinate President Lula and Justice Moraes. However, Fux voted to convict two close allies: former defence minister General Walter Braga Netto and former aide-de-camp Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid for planning and funding the assassination plot.
Outside the Supreme Court, left-wing supporters celebrated the verdict. Trumpeter Fabiano Leitão, who has long used his instrument to criticise Bolsonaro, performed Chopin's Funeral March to mark the former president's downfall, followed by a lively samba. 'It's the end of this guy!' he said, reflecting the joy many Brazilians feel at the conviction of a politician they blame for attacking democracy, the environment and minorities.
