মহানবী (সা.) যেভাবে মানবজাতির জন্য রহমতস্বরূপ

Ex-President Bolsonaro starts serving 27-year sentence for Brazil coup plot

 Online Desk

File Photo: AFP

Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup against his successor, marking a dramatic turning point after years of political upheaval and legal battles surrounding his turbulent presidency, reports Reuters.

The court formally concluded Bolsonaro’s case on Tuesday, making his conviction final, pending confirmation by a four-member Supreme Court panel in the evening. The panel had already rejected his final appeal earlier this month.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes instructed Bolsonaro to begin serving his sentence at the Federal Police Superintendency in Brasília, where he has been held since Saturday after tampering with his ankle monitor while under house arrest in a separate case.

The ruling represents the latest blow to a figure who rose from the far-right fringe to the presidency in 2019, reshaping Brazil’s political landscape through populist rhetoric, military nostalgia, and divisive governance that left the nation sharply polarized.

Since leaving office in 2022, Bolsonaro has been convicted, barred from holding public office, and politically isolated — even losing the support of former ally Donald Trump, who has begun rolling back tariffs once imposed in Bolsonaro’s defense.

“Today is a memorable day for Brazilian democracy,” Congressman Lindbergh Farias wrote on X. “For the first time in our history, we are seeing a former president and generals being arrested for a coup d’état.”

Bolsonaro’s lawyer, Celso Vilardi, criticized the court for “rushing” to close the case and argued his team should have been granted more time to appeal. His legal team vowed to continue challenging the verdict.

Bolsonaro received his 27-year and three-month sentence in September for attempting to overturn the 2022 election results after losing to leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He had also spent more than 100 days under house arrest in Brasília while facing allegations that he sought Trump’s interference on his behalf.

His son, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, told Reuters the prosecution amounted to “psychological torture” and a “rigged game.” After visiting his father, Carlos Bolsonaro said the former president was “emotionally destroyed.”

Despite insisting he will run for president next year, Bolsonaro and his family are simultaneously working to maintain influence within Brazil’s right wing and shape the selection of a conservative alternative candidate for 2026. The strategy has frustrated some allies eager to consolidate opposition to Lula, whose approval ratings rose again in a poll released Tuesday.

Bolsonaro’s defense in the ankle-monitor tampering case — claiming prescription medication made him believe the device contained listening equipment — has only deepened doubts about his political future. “Until recently, Bolsonaro often boasted about being an athlete,” noted political scientist Pedro Fassoni Arruda of the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. “Now he presents himself as someone frail and aging.”

In stark contrast to the massive crowds that stormed Congress in his name in 2023, only a small group of supporters gathered outside the Federal Police building on Tuesday. Trump, who for months publicly urged Brazil’s courts to drop the charges, offered a muted response, saying Bolsonaro’s detention was “too bad.”

Still, Bolsonaro’s allies insist his influence endures. “He is not politically weakened,” right-wing Senator Damares Alves said. “He is simply showing what we have long said: his health is not well.”