Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court reached a majority of votes to convict former President Jair Bolsonaro, with three of the five panel justices voting to find him guilty of attempting a coup to stay in power after losing the 2022 election.
The verdict is historic: it marks the first time a former Brazilian head of state has gone on trial for attempting to overthrow the government.
The 70-year-old right-wing leader, who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022, and seven alleged co-conspirators faced charges ranging from plotting a coup, attempting to overthrow Brazil’s democratic order, and participating in an armed criminal organization.
Justice Cármen Lúcia’s guilty vote on Thursday delivered the necessary majority to convict Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest since August, also faces additional charges related to the Brasília riots on January 8, 2023. On that day, Bolsonaro supporters invaded government buildings after he lost the 2022 election to left-wing leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, causing material damage and destroying historical items.
The proceedings will continue until Friday, when the final vote will be cast and the sentence announced. But with the majority already secured, Bolsonaro and his co-defendants—including three former generals and the former Navy commander—are headed for conviction and could face up to 40 years in prison.
The judge presiding over the case, Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, cast his guilty vote first, with nearly five hours of evidence and arguments on Tuesday. Moraes, long seen as Bolsonaro’s nemesis, was widely expected to convict him—and did not hold back in his decision. Bolsonaro allies view Moraes’s handling of the trial and the broader crackdown on disinformation in Brazil as overly harsh. In response, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Moraes, revoked his U.S. visa, and applied 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods.
Moraes accused Bolsonaro of orchestrating efforts to undermine democracy, repeatedly calling him the “leader of a criminal organization.” He said Bolsonaro began laying the groundwork for a coup in 2021, spreading disinformation about Brazil’s voting system and encouraging actions that led to the January 8, 2023 riots in Brasília.
“This was not drafted in secret by terrorists,” Moraes said. “It was written at the seat of the Brazilian government while Bolsonaro was in office.”
While Moraes and two other justices advocated for conviction on all charges against the former president, on Wednesday Justice Luiz Fux advocated for his acquittal on all five charges. He took 13 hours to read his dissenting vote and said the case should be judged by the full 11-member Supreme Federal Court, arguments that Bolsonaro’s defense team could potentially use to appeal a final decision.
Bolsonaro has consistently denied the allegations. His lawyer, Celso Villardi, argued there is no evidence linking him to a coup plot. A final session to debate sentencing will be held on Friday. The former president’s lawyers said he would appeal a guilty verdict. The other defendants also denied the charges.
The case has severely strained Brazil-U.S. relations. A staunch Bolsonaro ally, Trump called the trial a “witch hunt” when his administration imposed the 50% tariff on Brazilian goods in August.
Questioned on Tuesday about possible additional sanctions, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said there were no “additional actions to preview,” but emphasized that the matter remains a priority for the administration.
“This president is not afraid to use the economic power, the military power of the United States to protect freedom of speech around the world,” Leavitt said.
Former Army captain, Bolsonaro became Brazil’s first right-wing president since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985. His rapid rise from congressman to president in 2019 was as swift as it was brutal—surviving an assassination attempt in 2018.
Bolsonaro built a fiercely loyal base as a deeply divisive figure, particularly during his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nicknamed the “Trump of the Tropics,” Bolsonaro championed gun rights, traditional family values, and an anti-gay stance while using social media with unfiltered bravado.
Since leaving office, he has faced multiple legal challenges, including abuse of power and falsification of COVID vaccination records. In 2023, he was barred from running for public office until 2030 for spreading disinformation about Brazil’s voting system.
However, he remains a powerful force: he garnered 49% of the votes in 2022 and still draws tens of thousands to the streets in his defense.
With Bolsonaro sidelined, his allies are now vying to inherit his legacy ahead of next year’s elections, betting that his influence will continue to shape Brazil’s political future.
Source: npr.org by Júlia Dias Carneiro