Brazil’s Supreme Court on Friday formally rejected former President Jair Bolsonaro’s appeal of his 27-year prison sentence for an attempted coup, sharply reducing his chances of avoiding prison.
The court ruled against the appeal last week, but has not yet ratified its decision.
The former right-wing leader (2019-2022), aged 70, was found guilty in September of being the leader of a “criminal organization” that conspired to ensure the “maintenance of authoritarian rule” following the victory of his left-wing rival, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in the October 2022 elections.
The plan to kill Lula and a judge is aborted
According to prosecutors, this plan included the murder of Lula and the Supreme Court judge handling the case, Alexandre de Moraes. However, it failed due to lack of support from senior military officials.
Court sources indicated that the defense could file a final appeal within five days. However, this was quickly rejected by Moraes, who would have ended the procedure.
Bolsonaro, who has been under house arrest since August, could be jailed in the last week of November.
Due to health problems related to the impact of a stab wound to the stomach in 2018, he could ask the Court to let him serve his sentence at home, as happened with former president Fernando Collor de Mello (1990-1992), who was sentenced to eight years in prison for corruption.
There is no sentence reduction
In his appeal, the defense of the former head of state used “gross unfairness”, as well as “ambiguities, omissions, contradictions” in the trial, to demand a reduced sentence, and questioned the form of the case rather than the substance of the case.
Judge Moraes rejected this request, concluding that the trial highlighted Jair Bolsonaro’s central role in the coup attempt.
He also reiterated his role as the instigator of the events of January 8, 2023, when hundreds of his supporters stormed government buildings in Brasília.
Denying any “attack on the right to defense”, the judge assured that all evidence had been provided to the lawyers. “The decision vindicates all stages of calculating the sentence,” he wrote.
