Brazil, the Supreme Court sentences Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months

The First Chamber of Brazil's Supreme Court handed down a sentence of 27 years and three months for former President Jair Bolsonaro, convicted of attempted coup d'état and other related offences. The sentence was proposed by the judge rapporteur in the case, Alexandre de Morais.

"The gravity and intensity of the guilt, motives, circumstances and consequences of the crime are largely unfavourable to the defendant Jair Messias Bolsonaro". This was said by Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur of the case, during the vote on the determination of the sentence for the former president, sentenced to 27 years and three months for attempted coup and other related offences. According to Moraes, the former president 'instrumentalised the state apparatus and mobilised agents and public resources with the intention of spreading false narratives to cause social instability and perpetuate himself in power'.

After the conviction of former president Jair Bolsonaro for coup d'état, the reactions of his sons were not long in coming. The eldest son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, was extremely harsh, accusing the Supreme Court on social media of having 'broken the pillars of democracy' by condemning 'an innocent man who dared not bend to a dictator called Alexandre de Moraes'. "My father is strong and determined to face this persecution head-on," he wrote, adding that "history will prove that we are on the right side, that of defending democracy". Flavio denounced a trial 'with the verdict already written', praising the vote of Minister Luiz Fux, the only one to demand the acquittal of the former president. He also accused judge Carmen Lúcia, who gave the majority for the conviction, of 'not identifying a single behaviour and not citing even one concrete proof. People who do not know each other and have never spoken to each other have been turned into a single criminal organisation. Narratives have become the legal basis'. Federal MP Eduardo Bolsonaro, from the United States, also attacked harshly, speaking of 'supreme persecution' and writing in capital letters 'they want to kill Bolsonaro', calling for a 'broad, general and unrestricted' amnesty for all and denouncing 'the persecution of Moraes' against his family and his father's former allies.