BRASLIA: A Brazilian accused of stealing a football autographed by Neymar from Congress during the 2023 riots by supporters of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment for the theft and other charges.

The Supreme Court on Monday night convicted Nelson Ribeiro Fonseca Junior, 34, over the robbery of the ball.

He was also convicted of violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, armed criminal association and attempting a coup over his participation in the riots in Brasilia.

More than 500 people have been convicted over the events of Jan 8, 2023, when thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace to protest his election loss to left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Ribeiro confessed to taking the ball, which Neymar’s boyhood club Santos — to which he returned this year — gifted to the Chamber of Deputies in 2012.

His lawyers claimed that he found it on the floor of Congress during the unrest, took it away to protect it and handed it in 20 days later to the police.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ruled that Ribeiro had “actively participated” in events leading to the storming and sacking of Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace.

Moraes described the ball which he took, which had been on display in a corridor, as a “public good belonging to the public heritage” of Brazil.

The riots came a week after Lula was sworn in after narrowly defeating far-right incumbent Bolsonaro in October 2022 elections.

The demonstrators called for the military to intervene to oust him.

Bolsonaro, a former army captain who served a single term from 2019 to 2022, is accused of instigating the riots, although he was in the United States at the time.

He is on trial for allegedly plotting to wrest power from Lula in the event of his victory.

Prosecutors claim the plot only failed due to a lack of military backing.

Bolsonaro denies the charges.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2025