Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting coup, ordered to start serving sentence

Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year and three-month prison sentence for plotting a coup after losing the last election.

Judge Alexandre de Morais ruled on Tuesday that the verdict in the case was final and could not be appealed.

Bolsonaro, 70, was found guilty of leading a conspiracy to keep himself in power after losing the 2022 election to left-wing rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

He will begin serving his sentence at the federal police prison in the capital Brasilia, where he has been detained since Saturday after being released from home detention because he was considered a flight risk.

During Sunday’s hearing, Bolsonaro admitted to trying to turn on an ankle monitor with a hot iron until he “came to his senses,” court documents show.

He said he had no intention of running away and blamed drug-induced “paranoia” for causing damage to the monitor.

Judge Moraes on Tuesday ordered Bolsonaro to be given full-time medical care, his The medical team had previously said his health was deteriorating.

Supreme Court justices said last September that when Bolsonaro was convicted of plotting a coup, he knew of plans to assassinate Lula and his vice-presidential running mate Gerardo Alckmin, and to capture and execute Moraes, who had been overseeing Bolsonaro’s trial.

The plot failed to gain support from army and air force commanders. Lula was successfully sworn in on January 1, 2023.

But a week later, on January 8, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia. Security forces intervened and about 1,500 people were arrested.

The judges found that the rioters were incited by Bolsonaro, whose plan they said was for the military to step in and return him to power.

Bolsonaro is also banned from running for office until 2060, eight years after serving his sentence.

The former president called the trial a “witch hunt” aimed at preventing him from running in the 2026 presidential election.