Brazil’s Former President Bolsonaro Sentenced To 27 Years In Prison For Coup Attempt

Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison on Thursday for plotting a coup to remain in power despite his defeat in the 2022 presidential elections. The decision was declared by a panel of five supreme court justices who found the politician guilty on five counts, Reuters reported. 

The conviction made Bolsonaro the first former president in the country's history to be convicted for attacking democracy. The decision, however, drew criticism from the United States president Donald Trump who said that he was “very unhappy” with the conviction. He added that he always found Bolsonaro to be “outstanding.”

Four of the five judges on the panel convicted Bolsonaro of taking part in an armed criminal organization, attempting to violently abolish democracy, organizing a coup, and damaging government property and protected cultural assets.

"This criminal case is almost a meeting between Brazil and its past, its present and its future," Justice Carmen Lucia said before her vote to convict Bolsonaro, referring to a history checkered with military coups and attempts to overthrow democracy.

She was the third of five judges to find the 70-year-old far-right leader guilty. She claimed that there was ample evidence against the ex-president that he acted "with the purpose of eroding democracy and institutions.”

Trump had earlier hit Brazil with retaliatory tariffs terming the trial as a “witch hunt”. He had also imposed sanctions against the presiding judge, and the revocation of visas for most of the high court justices. 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X the court had "unjustly ruled," adding that "The United States will respond accordingly to this witch hunt."