Brazil’s Bolsonaro Sentenced to 27 Years for Coup Plot

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro speaks to reporters in early 2025 after the Supreme Court voted that he stand trial for allegedly attempting a coup (Wikimedia Commons).

Brazil’s Supreme Court sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison on September 11, convicting him of plotting a military coup to overturn his 2022 election loss. Four of the five justices on the panel voted to convict Bolsonaro, a far-right populist leader who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022, along with seven of his close allies, including high-ranking military officers.

In addition to the coup plot, Bolsonaro and his co-defendants were charged with employing violence to attempt  dismantling Brazil’s democratic order, belonging to an armed criminal organization, and damaging government property.

Prosecutors alleged Bolsonaro’s plot began in 2021, with his  efforts to erode public faith in Brazil’s electronic voting system.“Elections that you can’t audit? That’s not an election. It’s fraud,” Bolsonaro told reporters in the months leading up to the 2022 election. “I’ll hand over power–in a clean election,” he added. 

After a narrow loss to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, prosecutors claimed Bolsonaro attempted to annul results by encouraging his supporters to mobilize in Brasília, leading to thousands  storming and vandalizing the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court on January 8, 2023. Court evidence also exposed Bolsonaro’s plans to declare a state of emergency, dissolve the Supreme Court, and pressure the military to intervene.

Bolsonaro has denied the charges, insisting he is the target of political persecution, and his defense team framed the case as judicial overreach. “He never intended to stage a coup d’état. This is effectively a political movement being judged, not just its leadership,” argued his lawyer Paulo Cunha Bueno in an interview preceding the verdict. 

Bolsonaro’s conviction sparked a strong reaction from the United States. Even before the verdict, President Donald Trump demanded that Brazil drop the charges, threatening economic consequences. Upon the Lula administration’s refusal, Trump imposed a steep 50% tariff on Brazilian imports. Additionally, he subjected Justice Alexandre de Moraes to Magnitsky sanctions, typically reserved for the most serious human rights abusers,  and revoked visas for most of the high court’s justices. Trump expressed being “very unhappy” with the outcome: “I thought he was a good president of Brazil. And it's very surprising that that could happen,” he told reporters. 

Countering the Trump administration's criticism, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, cited uncovered plots to assassinate Trump, the vice president, and a Supreme Court justice, along with a draft decree to annul the 2022 results. “This was not a ‘witch hunt’,” he repudiated, while adding that he hoped to better understand  U.S. perspective by maintaining an “an open and frank dialogue.” 

Now 70 years old and barred from holding public office until 2060, Bolsonaro faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison. He has been under house arrest since August, 2025, as his sentence does not incite immediate  imprisonment. The panel has up to sixty days to publish its ruling, after which Bolsonaro’s lawyers will have five days to continue pursuing appeals. Given his multiple hospital visits in recent weeks and history of complications, Bolsonaro is expected to cite his fragile health in an effort to secure house arrest. 

The trial has left Brazil deeply polarized. On Independence Day, four days before the trial, tens of thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters rallied in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Brasília, denouncing the proceedings. Meanwhile, many Brazilians are celebrating the verdict as a historic milestone. The conviction of several high-ranking military officials is a landmark case, and seen by many as a long-delayed step forward for Brazil’s democracy.