Brazil’s far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro is running out of legal avenues to avoid prison after Supreme Court judges on Friday rejected his appeal against a 27-year sentence for attempting to overturn the 2022 election results.
Bolsonaro, who lost the presidential race to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was convicted in September for orchestrating a plot to block Lula’s inauguration, a scheme prosecutors say included plans to assassinate Lula and a Supreme Court justice, and which collapsed only because senior military commanders refused to support it.
All members of the Supreme Court panel reviewing the appeal voted last week to uphold the conviction, but the result only became official at midnight on Friday.
A court source told AFP that once the ruling is formally published — as early as Monday — Bolsonaro’s lawyers will have five days to file a final appeal. However, the source noted that the appeal could be “quickly” dismissed by lead judge Alexandre de Moraes, who would then issue the final judgment.
“Generally, after the publication of the final judgment, the arrest warrant is issued on the same day,” explained Thiago Bottino, a law professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation. Moraes will also decide where the arrest is to take place.
Based on procedural timelines, Bolsonaro could be taken into custody in the last week of November. The 70-year-old former army captain, who has maintained his innocence, has been under house arrest since August. Given his health issues linked to a 2018 stabbing, he could request to serve his sentence at home.
— ‘Ready to kill’ —
Prosecutors argued that Bolsonaro laid the groundwork to delegitimise the electronic voting system so he could allege fraud if Lula won and justify a military intervention. They also accused him of approving a plot to kill Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Justice Moraes.
“We were ready to kill a lot of people,” federal police agent Wladimir Soares, suspected of being part of the hit squad said in an audio message released by the court. “We were only awaiting orders from the president, but he backed down.”
In rejecting the appeal, Moraes reaffirmed that Bolsonaro had orchestrated a “deliberate coup attempt,” citing extensive evidence of his efforts and his role in inciting the January 8 assault on Congress and other key institutions by supporters demanding the military overturn the election.
Moraes said the 27-year, three-month sentence reflected Bolsonaro’s “high culpability as president” and the gravity of the crimes. He noted that Bolsonaro’s age had already been factored in as a mitigating consideration. Three other judges also voted to reject the appeal.
In a separate ruling on Friday, a majority of judges on the same panel agreed to proceed with a criminal case against Bolsonaro’s son, federal lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, on charges of coercion. Eduardo, who currently lives in the United States, was indicted in September for allegedly lobbying Washington to impose sanctions in an attempt to influence his father’s coup trial.
AFP
