Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered former president Jair Bolsonaro to immediately begin serving a 27-year and three-month prison sentence for conspiring to overturn the 2022 election he lost to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes declared the verdict final, with no further appeals possible. Bolsonaro, 70, is currently detained in a federal police facility in Brasília after being deemed a flight risk and removed from house arrest.
Bolsonaro admitted to trying to tamper with his ankle monitor but denied any intent to flee, blaming medication-induced paranoia. The court mandated continuous medical care for him due to ongoing health concerns.
The ruling found Bolsonaro guilty of leading a conspiracy that involved plans to annul election results, dissolve the Supreme Court, grant extraordinary military powers, and assassinate Lula, his running mate, and Justice de Moraes, who oversaw the trial.
The coup attempt failed as the military did not support it, but thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters later stormed government buildings in Brasília on January 8, 2023, resulting in about 1,500 arrests. The court held Bolsonaro responsible for inciting the riots, aiming for the military to reinstate him as president.
Alongside his prison term, Bolsonaro is barred from seeking elected office until 2060. He called the trial a “witch hunt” targeted at preventing his 2026 presidential run. Other co-conspirators, including former generals Augusto Heleno and Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira, have also been ordered to start serving their sentences.