BRAZIL’s Supreme Court on Thursday sentenced firebrand ex-president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison for coup plotting at the end of a landmark trial that divided the nation and drew US fury.
The sentence could see the 70-year-old far-right leader spend the rest of his days in jail.
Judges voted 4-1 to convict Bolsonaro of plotting to overthrow Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva following his October 2022 election defeat by the left-winger.
Prosecutors said the plan failed only due to a lack of support from military top brass.
Bolsonaro’s defense team called the sentence “incredibly excessive” and announced he would appeal, “including at the international level.”
Washington was quick to respond to the conviction of the man dubbed “the Trump of the tropics” on his election in 2019.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States “will respond accordingly” to what he called a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
Brazil’s foreign ministry hit back, saying it would not be intimidated by Rubio’s “threats.”
Trump, who levied steep tariffs on Brazil as punishment over Bolsonaro’s prosecution, labeled the verdict “very surprising.”
He praised Bolsonaro as a “good president” and “good man” and said his legal woes were “very much like they tried to do with me.”
While the Supreme Court had already garnered the simple majority of three votes needed for his conviction at the fourth vote, it only became final after the last of the five judges issued his decision.
“An armed criminal organization was formed by the defendants, who must be convicted based on the factual circumstances I consider proven,” said the fifth judge, Cristiano Zanin, Lula’s former lawyer.
Bolsonaro’s seven co-accused, including former ministers and military chiefs, were also convicted.
The former army captain, who served a single term from 2019 to 2022, claims he is the victim of political persecution.
Speaking outside his father’s home in Brasilia, Bolsonaro’s lawmaker son Flavio Bolsonaro said the politician was “holding his head high in the face of this persecution, because history will show that we are on the right side.”
He added that his father’s allies would act with “all their might” to secure Congress’s support for an amnesty bill.
Bolsonaro’s conviction came after one of the biggest and most divisive trials in Brazil’s recent history, which ended with a nail-biting vote that stretched over four days.