{"id":10865,"date":"2025-11-26T14:22:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T09:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=10865"},"modified":"2025-11-26T14:22:55","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T09:22:55","slug":"brazils-bolsonaro-begins-27-year-jail-term-for-coup-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/politics\/brazils-bolsonaro-begins-27-year-jail-term-for-coup-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil\u2019s Bolsonaro begins 27-year jail term for coup bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a failed coup, after he exhausted all appeals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brash former army captain, who fired up Brazil\u2019s right and reshaped the country\u2019s politics, is ending a divisive career jailed in a small room at police headquarters equipped with a TV, mini-fridge, and air-conditioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsonaro, 70, was convicted<\/a> in September over a scheme to stop Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office as president after the 2022 elections, a plan that included a plot to kill the veteran leftist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutors said the scheme failed only due to a lack of support from military top brass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal to his sentence earlier this month and ruled the judgment final. The court also ordered a military tribunal to decide whether Bolsonaro should be stripped of his captain\u2019s rank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsonaro had been under house arrest until Saturday, when he was detained<\/a> at police headquarters in Brasilia for tampering with his ankle monitor using a soldering iron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said there were signs Bolsonaro planned to flee during a vigil organised by his son outside his home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The justice cited the nearby US embassy and Bolsonaro\u2019s close relationship with former US President Donald Trump, suggesting he may have sought political asylum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsonaro said he acted out of \u201cparanoia\u201d induced by medication and denied attempting to escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court ruled Bolsonaro will remain detained in the officers\u2019 room, a secure space for protected prisoners, in Brasilia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five of his co-accused, including military generals and former ministers, also began serving sentences of between 19 and 26 years on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former intelligence chief Alexandre Ramagem, sentenced to 16 years, was declared a fugitive after fleeing to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsonaro\u2019s defence lawyer, Paulo Cunha Bueno, called the closure of the case \u201csurprising\u201d and said he would file an appeal regardless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brazilian congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, the president\u2019s son, was also charged on Tuesday with obstruction of justice after promoting Trump-era measures seeking to interfere with his father\u2019s trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Extremely fragile\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsonaro is the fourth former president to be imprisoned since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May, Fernando Collor de Mello was allowed to serve his nearly nine-year sentence for corruption at home due to health concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsonaro\u2019s defence team argues he should receive the same treatment, warning that detention endangers his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He suffers the consequences of a stab wound sustained during a 2018 campaign attack and has required several follow-up surgeries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also experiences persistent \u201cuncontrollable hiccups\u201d linked to gastric issues, leaving him breathless and fainting, according to doctors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsonaro\u2019s family has highlighted his poor mental and physical state. After visiting him on Tuesday, Carlos Bolsonaro described his father as \u201cextremely fragile and psychologically devastated,\u201d adding: \u201cHe\u2019s eating very little \u2014 there\u2019s no way for someone who knows he didn\u2019t commit a crime to see this as normal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsonaro, president from 2019 to 2022, maintains his innocence and claims political persecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Bolsonaro sidelined, Brazil\u2019s large conservative electorate lacks a champion ahead of the 2026 presidential elections, in which Lula, 80, has said he will seek a fourth term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lula himself was jailed<\/a> between mandates for corruption but had his conviction overturned by the Supreme Court after a year and a half.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a failed coup, after he exhausted all appeals. The brash former army captain, who fired up Brazil\u2019s right and reshaped the country\u2019s politics, is ending a divisive career jailed in a small room at police headquarters […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":10866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,342],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10865"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}