BRASILIA, Brazil — A panel of Brazilian Supreme Court justices sentenced former president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison Thursday after convicting him of attempting a coup to remain in office despite his 2022 electoral defeat. <\/p>\n
Bolsonaro is currently under house arrest in Brasilia. He can appeal the sentence.<\/p>\n
Four of the five justices reviewing the case in the panel found the far-right politician guilty on five counts.<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump said hours later that he was \u201cvery unhappy\u201d with the conviction. Speaking to reporters as he departed the White House, he said he always found Bolsonaro to be \u201coutstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP\u2019s earlier story follows below.<\/p>\n
A panel of Brazilian Supreme Court<\/a> justices on Thursday voted to convict former president Jair Bolsonaro of attempting a coup to remain in office despite his 2022 electoral defeat, in a ruling that will deepen political divisions and likely prompt a backlash from the United States government.<\/p>\n Four of the five justices reviewing the case in the panel found the far-right politician guilty on five counts. The latest to rule were C\u00e1rmen L\u00facia and Cristiano Zanin on Thursday, a day after another justice, Luiz Fux,<\/a> disagreed and voted to acquit the ex-president of all charges.<\/p>\n The panel is now deciding on Bolsonaro\u2019s sentence, which could amount to decades in prison. <\/p>\n U.S. President Donald Trump said hours later that he was \u201cvery unhappy\u201d with the conviction. Speaking to reporters as he departed the White House, he said he always found Bolsonaro to be \u201coutstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n The conviction, he added, is \u201cvery bad for Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawyers for Bolsonaro have said they will appeal the verdict to the full Supreme Court of 11 justices.<\/p>\n The 70-year-old former president, who has denied any wrongdoing, is currently under house arrest. <\/p>\n Bolsonaro is the first former Brazilian president to be convicted of attempting a coup. He has not attended the court proceedings, and on Thursday morning he was seen at his house’s garage but didn’t speak to reporters.<\/p>\n Justice L\u00facia said she was convinced by the evidence the Attorney General’s Office presented against the former president. \u201cHe is the instigator, the leader of an organization that orchestrated every possible move to maintain or seize power,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The trial has been followed by a divided society, with people backing the process against the former president, while others still support him. Some have taken to the streets to back the far-right leader who contends he is being politically persecuted.<\/p>\n Bolsonaro\u2019s trial got renewed attention after Trump linked a 50% tariff on imported Brazilian goods<\/a> to his ally\u2019s legal situation, calling it a \u201c witch hunt<\/a>.\u201d Observers say the U.S. might announce new sanctions against Brazil after the trial, further straining their fragile diplomatic relations.<\/p>\n Justice Alexandre de Moraes<\/a>, who is overseeing the case, said Tuesday that Bolsonaro was the leader of a coup plot and of a criminal organization, and voted in favor of convicting<\/a> him. <\/p>\n Lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, one of the former president\u2019s sons, on Thursday talk about his father on his social media platforms. But instead of mentioning his father\u2019s conviction, he pushed for his amnesty, which he is seeking through Congress.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is time to do nothing less than what is correct, just,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Fux, in his dissenting opinion on Wednesday, disagreed with de Moraes and the other two justices.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one can be punished for cogitation,\u201d Fux said. \u201cA coup d\u2019\u00e9tat does not result from isolated acts or individual demonstrations lacking coordination, but rather from the actions of organized groups, equipped with resources and strategic capacity to confront and replace the incumbent power.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier Thursday, L\u00facia also voted to convict Bolsonaro of organized crime in connection with the alleged coup attempt. <\/p>\n L\u00facia allowed de Moraes to interrupt her vote and play several videos that showed Bolsonaro in front of thousands of supporters between 2021 and 2023 urging him to leave the Supreme Court. De Moraes also showed footage of some destruction inside the court’s headquarters after the riots on Jan. 8, 2023.<\/a><\/p>\n Bolsonaro faced accusations he attempted to illegally hang onto power after his 2022 electoral defeat<\/a> to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva<\/a>. <\/p>\n Prosecutors charged Bolsonaro with counts including attempting to stage a coup, being part of an armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, as well as being implicated in violence and posing a serious threat to the state\u2019s assets and listed heritage.<\/p>\n \u201cBolsonaro attempted a coup in this country, and there is hundreds of pieces of evidence,\u201d Lula said early Thursday in an interview with local TV Band, ahead of the trial.<\/p>\n Despite his legal woes, Bolsonaro remains a powerful political player in Brazil. <\/p>\n The far-right politician had been previously banned from running for office until 2030 in a separate case. He is expected to choose an heir who is likely to challenge President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva next year. <\/p>\n The ruling may push Bolsonaro\u2019s allied lawmakers to seek some amnesty for him through Congress.<\/p>\n After the court panel debates on Bolsonaro’s sentence, the embattled former leader could face increased pressure to pick a political heir to likely challenge Lula in the general elections next year.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a God in heaven who sees everything, who loves justice and hates iniquity,” former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro wrote on social media. <\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n S\u00e1 Pessoa reported from Sao Paulo. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville, in Washington, D.C., contributed with this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRASILIA, Brazil — A panel of Brazilian Supreme Court justices sentenced former president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":220610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[120166,347,15124,356,57,51,4228,362,50,80,52,8007,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-220609","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-120166","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-coups-detat","11":"tag-courts","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-indictments","15":"tag-legal-proceedings","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-trials","20":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115190822860996894","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}