Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison, after the country’s Supreme Court found him guilty of plotting a coup to remain in power.
The former army captain and an admirer of military dictatorship, lost Brazil’s 2022 presidential race to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and rejected the result. It would be his second term if ever.
According to WSJ News, he was essentially going to do what he could to stop Lula from taking office last January 2023.
That plan allegedly included talks of assassinating Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin, and a Supreme Court justice who was investigating him, through poisoning or blowing them with grenades.
STANDUPPER: STANDUPPER: Bolsonaro and roughly 40 allies were plotting ways to overthrow them.
Because of this four out of five justices on their Supreme Court voted to convict him on five charges:
- participating in an armed criminal organization
- attempting to violently abolish democracy
- organizing a coup
- damaging government property
- protected cultural assets
The court also convicted seven of his allies, including five military officers, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing, stating that he is not aware of these plans.
He claimed there were only constitutional ways to stop Lula from taking power in January 2023. His legal team also vowed to appeal the sentence
Previously in 2023, Brazil’s electoral court already banned him from holding public office until 2030 for spreading false claims about the country’s electronic voting system.