Brazil’s Supreme Court on Thursday convicted Jair Bolsonaro of plotting a military coup and attempting to abolish Brazil’s democracy, and hours later sentenced the 70-year-old former president to 27 years and three months in prison. The vote was 4 to 1. In 2022, Bolsonaro allegedly planned to stay in office and overturn the election by poisoning left-wing rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after he unseated Bolsonaro. Then, on Jan. 8, 2023, his supporters stormed the Supreme Court, Congress, and Presidential Palace, causing “damage of an Amazonian scale,” said Judge Luiz Fux. While the alt-right populist has been awaiting his sentence under home arrest, his son, Eduardo, has been lobbying the Trump administration to intervene in the case, per The New York Times. Trump, in turn, has imposed 50 percent tariffs on Brazil, reportedly targeting them for political reasons. Reacting to the sentence, Trump said: “That’s very much like they tried to do with me. But they didn’t get away with it at all.” Bolsonaro’s lawyers can appeal the sentence, but not the verdict.
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