Brazil’s Supreme Court sentenced former president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison on Thursday after finding him guilty of plotting a coup to remain in power.
The ruling quickly drew condemnation from the administration of US President Donald Trump, which vowed retaliatory measures.
The 70-year-old ex-leader was convicted after four of the five Supreme Court justices voted to uphold charges of conspiring to overthrow his political rival, current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who defeated him in the 2022 presidential election.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced the ruling as unjust and warned that Washington would respond in kind, promising that the United States would take proportionate action against Brazil.
According to the court’s decision, Bolsonaro (who governed from 2019 to 2022) was found guilty of leading a “criminal organization” that sought to ensure his authoritarian hold on power after his electoral defeat. The former president, already banned from running for office until 2030, has been under house arrest in Brasília since early August on suspicion of obstructing the judicial process.
Bolsonaro did not attend the court sessions, with his lawyers citing health concerns. On Thursday morning, however, AFP journalists spotted him in the garden of his residence wearing a green polo shirt and dark trousers while accompanied by a relative.
His eldest son, Flávio Bolsonaro, slammed the verdict on social media, arguing that officials had predetermined the outcome, calling it a political show trial.
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