Brazil’s Supreme Court sentenced right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison on charges of plotting a coup after losing the last election.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes ruled Tuesday that the case had reached its final verdict and that no further appeals could be made.
Bolsonaro, 70, was found guilty of leading a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the 2022 election to left-wing rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
He is scheduled to serve his sentence in a federal police prison in the capital Brasilia, where he has been held since Saturday after being released from home detention after being deemed a flight risk.
During Sunday’s hearing, Bolsonaro tried to open the ankle monitor with a soldering iron “until he came to his senses,” court documents say.
He said he had no intention of running away and blamed drug-induced “paranoia” for the damage he caused to the monitor.
On Tuesday, Judge Moraes ordered Bolsonaro to provide full-time medical care. Bolsonaro’s medical team previously said his health was deteriorating.
Supreme Court judges said Bolsonaro was aware of plans to assassinate Lula and his vice-presidential running mate Geraldo Alcmin and arrest and execute Moraes, who had been overseeing Bolsonaro’s trial, when he was found guilty of plotting a coup in September.
The plot failed to win the support of the army and air force commanders. Lula took office without incident on January 1, 2023.
But a week later, on January 8, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed a government building in Brasilia. Security forces intervened and about 1,500 people were arrested.
The judges found that the rioters were incited by Bolsonaro, whose plan, they said, was for the military to intervene and return him to power.
Bolsonaro is banned from running for public office until 2060, eight years after his prison term expires.
The former president called the trial a “witch hunt” designed to prevent him from running for president in 2026.
Judge Moraes ordered Tuesday that other convicted co-conspirators of Bolsonaro should also be sentenced.
These include former Minister of Institutional Security, General Augusto Heleno, and former Minister of Defense, General Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira.
