BRASILIA: Brazil’s Sup­re­me Court on Thursday sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup, concluding a landmark trial that has deeply divided the nation and provoked a furious response from the United States.

The sentence, delivered after a 4-1 vote by the court’s justices, could see the 70-year-old far-right leader spend the rest of his life in jail.

The final conviction was sealed after the last of five judges, Cristiano Zanin, cast his vote. “An armed criminal organisation was formed by the defendants, who must be convicted based on the factual circumstances I consider proven,” said Zanin, who is Lula’s former lawyer.

Marco Rubio terms the judgement politically motivated ‘witch-hunt’

Seven of Bolsonaro’s co-accused, including former ministers and military chiefs, were also convicted.

Judges convicted Bolsonaro of attempting to overthrow President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva following his October 2022 election defeat. Prosecutors argued the plan only failed because it lacked support from military commanders.

Bolsonaro’s defence team called the sentence “incredibly excessive” and announced it would appeal, “including at the international level”.

The conviction of the man often called “the Trump of the tropics” drew a swift reaction from Washington. State Secr­etary Marco Rubio said the US “will respond accordingly” to what he termed a politically motivated “witch hunt”. Brazil’s foreign ministry cou­n­tered that it would not be intim­idated by Rubio’s “threats”.

US President Donald Trump, who imposed steep tariffs on Brazil as a punitive measure over the prosecution, called the verdict “very surprising”. He praised Bolsonaro as a “good president” and a “good man,” adding that the former leader’s legal troubles were “very much like they tried to do with me”.

In addition to heading a “criminal organisation,” the court found Bolsonaro guilty of inciting the violent 2023 storming of the Supreme Court, presidential palace and Congress by hundreds of his supporters a week after Lula’s inauguration. He was also charged with knowing of a plan to assassinate Lula.

Bolsonaro, a former army captain who claims he is a victim of political persecution, followed the proceedings from his residence, where he is under house arrest.

His son, lawmaker Flavio Bolsonaro, said his father was “holding his head high in the face of this persecution, because history will show that we are on the right side.” He added that allies would act with “all their might” to secure an amnesty bill from Congress.

The case drove a deep wedge through Brazilian society, In one Brasilia bar, patrons watching the trial on a giant screen burst into applause after he was convicted. “After so much waiting, this despicable individual is being sent to jail,” translator Virgilio Soares, 46, said.

But Germano Cavalcante, a 60-year-old civil engineer, called the trial “unfair”

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2025