Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro convicted of plotting coup, sentenced to over 27 years in prison
A session during the final phase of the trial of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro
By Julia Vargas Jones, Michael Rios, CNN
(CNN) — Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro has been found guilty of attempting to overturn the country’s 2022 election with a plot prosecutors say included plans to assassinate the president-elect in a bid to cling to power.
Four out of five justices on a Brazilian Supreme Court panel voted to convict Bolsonaro on all five counts in the landmark case, and to sentence him to 27 years and three months in prison.
Bolsonaro has been convicted of plotting a coup d’état, taking part in an armed criminal organization, attempting to abolish Brazil’s democratic order by force, committing violent acts against state institutions and damaging protected public property during the storming of government buildings by his supporters on January 8, 2023.
Part of the coup plot, prosecutors alleged, involved a plan to potentially use explosives, weapons of war or poison to assassinate leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, his Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw Bolsonaro’s trial.
Bolsonaro and other defendants in the trial had denied wrongdoing.
The evidence against Bolsonaro largely centered on how he tried to stay in power after losing the presidential election in 2022 to Lula da Silva. Federal police said Bolsonaro had “full knowledge” of a plan to overturn the election results, pressure the military to intervene, and even create a parallel “crisis management office” to run the government.
Prosecutors had alleged that the coup plot began in 2021, with efforts to undermine public trust in the electoral system. After Bolsonaro’s defeat in the 2022 election, prosecutors said defendants attempted to overturn the results by encouraging Bolsonaro supporters to mobilize in Brasília, where they stormed and vandalized the three seats of government on January 8, 2023.
Moraes, who was the first justice to cast a guilty vote on Tuesday, said the defendants “committed all the criminal offenses imputed by the Attorney General’s Office.” Justices Flávio Dino, Cármen Lúcia, and Cristiano Zanin also voted to convict Bolsonaro.
A polarized country
The verdict leaves Bolsonaro, 70, facing the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison.
Defense lawyers could still file appeals, but once those challenges are exhausted, the ruling becomes final and any prison terms can be enforced.
The trial, which comes ahead of the 2026 general election, has polarized Brazil. Over the weekend, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters filled the streets on the country’s Independence Day to protest the legal proceedings.
Bolsonaro’s eldest son, Flavio Bolsonaro, a senator in Brazil, criticized the outcome and took aim at Moraes. “Under the pretext of defending democracy, the pillars of democracy were broken to condemn an innocent person who dared not to bow to a dictator named Alexandre de Moraes,” he said on X Thursday.
Bolsonaro has long insisted that the trial amounted to a political witch hunt.
That sentiment has been echoed by one of his biggest political allies, US President Donald Trump, who imposed a 50% tariff on Brazil after threatening to do so if the country did not end the trial against Bolsonaro.
His administration has also sanctioned Moraes for what it considers “serious human rights violations,” and announced visa restrictions against him and other court officials over Bolsonaro’s trial.
Trump didn’t answer if he would apply new sanctions when asked about the conviction by reporters on Thursday, but he expressed shock at the trial’s outcome. “I thought he was a good president of Brazil, and it’s very surprising that that could happen,” he said on the White House lawn.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the verdict “unjust” on X and said the US “will respond accordingly to this witch hunt.”
Eduardo Bolsonaro, another son of the former president, told Reuters he expects additional US sanctions against Brazilian officials, including justices who voted to convict.
Bolsonaro’s supporters and some on Brazil’s right have welcomed Trump’s interest in the case. But the current administration in Brasília, and many others in the Latin American nation, see it as the US meddling in its affairs.
Justice Luiz Fux on Wednesday voted to acquit the former president of all charges. He argued that the events do not constitute a coup as Lula da Silva was never overthrown. He also said the court lacks jurisdiction to review the case, which he said should be annulled.
Bolsonaro joins a growing list of Latin American leaders to be convicted of a crime in recent years.
Last month, former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe was sentenced to 12 years of house arrest after being found guilty of procedural fraud and witness bribery – a verdict he is appealing.
In 2022, Argentina’s ex-leader Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was convicted of corruption related to public works contracts.
And in 2017, Brazil’s current President Lula da Silva was found guilty of corruption and money laundering, serving more than a year in prison before his conviction was later annulled.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
CNN’s Francisca Marques contributed to this report.
