{"id":593462,"date":"2025-11-25T19:54:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T19:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/593462\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T19:54:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T19:54:14","slug":"jair-bolsonaro-ordered-to-start-27-year-prison-term-for-plotting-brazil-coup-jair-bolsonaro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/593462\/","title":{"rendered":"Jair Bolsonaro ordered to start 27-year prison term for plotting Brazil coup | Jair Bolsonaro"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brazil<\/a>\u2019s former president, Jair Bolsonaro<\/a>, has been ordered to start serving his 27-year sentence in a 12 sq metre bedroom in a police base in the capital, Bras\u00edlia, after his conviction for plotting a coup.<\/p>\n

The far-right populist, who governed Latin America\u2019s largest democracy from 2019 until 2022, was handed the punishment in September after the supreme court found him guilty<\/a> of leading a criminal conspiracy to stop his leftwing rival, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, taking power.<\/p>\n

The plot \u2013 which involved a plan to assassinate Lula<\/a> and his running mate, Geraldo Alckmin \u2013 foundered after military chiefs refused to take part and the court later convicted Bolsonaro and six accomplices of trying to \u201cannihilate\u201d Brazilian democracy and plunge the country back into dictatorship.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes ruled that Bolsonaro should start serving his sentence after the case formally ended following a period for appeals. Bolsonaro has been living under house arrest since August and was taken into preventive custody on Saturday after unsuccessfully trying to cut off his electronic ankle tag with a soldering iron.<\/a><\/p>\n

Bolsonaro\u2019s six co-conspirators were also ordered to start their sentences.<\/p>\n

The former defence minister Gen Paulo S\u00e9rgio Nogueira de Oliveira, and the former minister for institutional security Gen Augusto Heleno were arrested and imprisoned in the Planalto Military Command in Bras\u00edlia. They received sentences of 19 and 21 years respectively.<\/p>\n

The former navy commander Adm Almir Garnier Santos, who received a 24-year sentence, was reportedly arrested by navy officials and held on a navy base.<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro\u2019s former defence minister, Gen Walter Braga Netto, who received a 26-year sentence, was already in custody having been arrested last December<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The former justice minister, Anderson Torres, who received a 24-year sentence, was expected to be sent to a penitentiary for police officers and other \u201cspecial\u201d prisoners in Bras\u00edlia called Papudinha.<\/p>\n

The former spy chief Alexandre Ramagem received a 16-year sentence, but recently fled to the US to avoid jail.<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro\u2019s incarceration has sparked jubilation among progressive Brazilians who remember his four-year government as a calamitous spell of environmental devastation, international isolation and hostility to minorities. Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians died during a Covid outbreak Bolsonaro was accused of catastrophically mishandling<\/a> with his anti-scientific stance.<\/p>\n

Mustafa Baba-Aissa, the owner of a Rio de Janeiro record store, has marked the historic occasion by decorating its facade with a white banner announcing: \u201cBolsonaro\u2019s in jail!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a contemptible man who has done nothing with his life apart from living off public money \u2026 I\u2019ve no idea how he was elected,\u201d said the business owner, who plastered his shop\u2019s windows with homemade posters celebrating Bolsonaro\u2019s downfall.<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro supporters condemned the jailing of their leader, a paratrooper-turned-politician who was elected in 2018<\/a> and posed as South America\u2019s answer to Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been kidnapped,\u201d complained Ronny de Souza, a 43-year-old Bolsonaro activist, as he stood outside the federal police base where the politician was taken last weekend after being arrested amid suspicions he was about to abscond to a foreign embassy.<\/p>\n

Lenildo Mendes dos Santos Sert\u00e3o, a politician\u200b from the Amazon who uses the nickname Delegado Caveira (\u201cPolice chief Skull\u201d), claimed his ally was the victim of a witch-hunt. \u201cHe fought against the system and now the system has unfairly and illegally incarcerated him,\u201d Sert\u00e3o said.<\/p>\n

Bolsonaristas vowed to battle on, even with their movement\u2019s helmsman in prison and out of the political game. \u201cHe represents millions of people in our country,\u201d said Souza, predicting that large numbers of followers would flock to Bras\u00edlia to protest Bolsonaro\u2019s plight.<\/p>\n

But so far there has been no sign of mass protests or unrest, with only small groups of Bolsonaristas demonstrating and praying outside the federal police compound where he has spent the last three nights.<\/p>\n

Experts say the former president\u2019s influence has waned dramatically in recent months, particularly after Bolsonaro was arrested for tampering with his ankle tag.<\/p>\n

Camila Rocha, a political scientist who studies Brazil\u2019s new right, said recent polls revealed a clear decrease in support for Bolsonaro \u2013 both in the streets and social media. One study found that only 13% of voters now supported Bolsonaro \u201cno matter what\u201d. Last month, a rally in Bras\u00edlia organized by Bolsonaro\u2019s family drew about 2,000 people \u2013 far smaller than the huge crowds the former president mobilized when at the peak of his powers.<\/p>\n

\u201cCould there be more protests? Sure. But I think this declining trend is established,\u201d said Rocha, who saw Bolsonaro in \u201ca dead-end situation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rocha believed Bolsonaro\u2019s arrest was good news for the rightwing politicians hoping to inherit his votes, as well as for voters hoping to see \u201ca reduction in anti-democratic extremism\u201d in Brazil.<\/p>\n

Not all of the pro-Bolsonaro schemers sentenced over the coup could be imprisoned on Tuesday. Ramagem, the former head of Brazil\u2019s intelligence agency, Abin, recently skipped the country despite having his passport cancelled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m safe in the US,\u201d Ramagem announced in a social media video on Monday, urging Bolsonaristas to take to the streets to defend \u201cour greatest leader\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday afternoon, as the plotters began to serve their sentences, there was no immediate sign citizens would heed his call.<\/p>\n

After visiting his father earlier in the day, Carlos Bolsonaro told reporters: \u201cHe\u2019s psychologically devastated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brazil\u2019s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been ordered to start serving his 27-year sentence in a 12 sq…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-593462","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115612094601390087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}