Key Points
- Jair Bolsonaro has been convicted by Brazil’s Supreme Court of plotting a coup after his 2022 election loss.
- Three judges found him guilty of five crimes, including leading a criminal organisation.
- Bolsonaro will be sentenced this week.
Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been convicted by a Supreme Court majority of plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election, a powerful blow to the populist far-right movement he created.
The presumptive ruling by a majority of a panel of five justices in Brazil’s Supreme Court on Thursday makes Bolsonaro the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted for attacking democracy.
“This criminal case is almost a meeting between Brazil and its past, its present, and its future,” justice Carmen Lucia said before she voted to convict Bolsonaro of attempting a coup, a reference to previous attempts to overthrow democracy in the country’s history.
There was ample evidence, she added, that Bolsonaro acted “with the purpose of eroding democracy and institutions”.
What led to this point?
Jair Bolsonaro’s political journey began in the 1980s as a city politician after a brief career as an army paratrooper.
He went on to be elected as a congressman in Brasilia, where he quickly became known for his defence of authoritarian-era policies.
Burning anti-establishment anger helped lay the path for his successful 2018 presidential run, with dozens of far-right and conservative lawmakers elected on his coattails.
Bolsonaro’s presidency was marked by intense scepticism about the pandemic and vaccines and his embrace of informal mining and land-clearing for cattle grazing, pushing deforestation rates in the Amazon rainforest to record highs.
Bolsonaro is accused of plotting with allies to stage a coup against the government of his progressive successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, following his 2022 election defeat.
According to the prosecution, he had planned to impose a state of emergency and call new elections — but he was unable to win the support of the military leadership.
On 8 January 2023, supporters of the populist politician stormed Congress, the Supreme Federal Court and the presidential palace in Brasília.
In 2023, Brazil’s electoral court, which oversees elections, barred him from public office until 2030 for venting unfounded claims about Brazil’s electronic voting system.
What has Jair Bolsonaro been convicted of?
Three judges so far have voted to convict the former president of five crimes: taking part in an armed criminal organisation, attempting to violently abolish democracy, organising a coup, and damaging government property and protected cultural assets.
One judge acquitted him, and one remains to vote.
The conviction of Bolsonaro is likely to further enrage Bolsonaro’s close ally, US President Donald Trump, who has already called the case a “witch hunt” and slammed Brazil with tariff hikes, sanctions against the presiding judge, and the revocation of visas for most members of Brazil’s high court.
Donald Trump has called the trial of his ally Jair Bolsonaro a “witch hunt”. Source: Getty / Chris Kleponis / Pool
The justices are expected to decide on a prison sentence, and how it would be served, later this week.
Bolsonaro, who is currently under house arrest as part of another case, faces a maximum potential sentence of 40 years.
The verdict was not unanimous, with justice Luiz Fux on Wednesday breaking with his peers by acquitting the former president of all charges.
What does Bolsonaro’s conviction mean?
That single vote could open a path to challenges to the ruling, potentially bringing the trial’s conclusion closer to the run-up of the 2026 presidential elections, in which Bolsonaro has repeatedly said he is a candidate despite being barred from running for office.
Fux’s vote also ignited a surge of righteous relief among the former president’s supporters, who hailed it as a vindication.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Luiz Fux broke with his peers by acquitting the former president of all charges. Source: AAP / Antonio Lacerda
Bolsonaro’s conviction marks a low in his trajectory from the back benches of Congress to forge a powerful conservative coalition that tested the limits of the country’s young democratic institutions.
His conviction and its durability will now emerge as a powerful test for the strategy that Brazil’s highest-ranking judges have adopted to protect the country’s democracy against what they describe as dangerous attacks by the far-right.
Their targets included social media posts that they say spread disinformation about the electoral system, as well as politicians and activists.
The cases were largely led by justice Alexandre de Moraes, appointed to the court by a conservative president in 2017, whose stance against Bolsonaro and his allies was celebrated by the left and denounced by the right as political persecution
The three justices also ruled to convict Bolsonaro’s seven allies, including five military officers. The verdict marks the first time since Brazil became a republic almost 140 years ago that military officials have been punished for attempting to overthrow democracy.
— additional reporting by DPA.
