BRASILIA ¨C Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced on Thursday to 27 years and three months in prison hours after being convicted of plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election, dealing a powerful rebuke to one of the world¡¯s most prominent far-right populist leaders.
The conviction ruling by a panel of five justices on Brazil¡¯s Supreme Court, who also agreed on the sentence, made the 70-year-old Bolsonaro the first former president in the country¡¯s history to be convicted for attacking democracy, and drew disapproval from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
¡°This criminal case is almost a meeting between Brazil and its past, its present and its future,¡± Justice Carmen Lucia said before her vote to convict Bolsonaro, referring to a history checkered with military coups and attempts to overthrow democracy.
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