SAO PAULO — The majority of justices on Brazil’s Supreme Court panel reviewing former President Jair Bolsonaro’s appeal rejected his request on Friday.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the case’s rapporteur, rejected all defense arguments, calling them “unfeasible,” and said there were no omissions in the sentencing. Justices Flávio Dino and Cristiano Zanin concurred with De Moraes. The vote of Justice Cármen Lúcia is still pending, but she is expected to align with the other panel members.
The panel has until Nov. 14 to submit their votes, and the decision won’t be finalized until then. Although unlikely, justices could change their votes before then.
Bolsonaro was convicted in September of attempting a coup following his 2022 electoral defeat and was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison. He has been under house arrest since August.
His legal team filed an appeal on Oct. 28 seeking to reduce the sentence. The defense argued that Bolsonaro should not be convicted of both organizing a coup and attempting to violently abolish democracy, claiming the charges overlap and that cumulative penalties are unjust.
Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing. He was convicted of attempting a coup after losing the 2022 race to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a plot that prosecutors alleged included plans to kill Lula. He was found guilty on other charges including participating in an armed criminal organization and attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law.
They also cited Justice Luiz Fux, the sole dissenting vote in the five-member panel that convicted Bolsonaro, arguing that even if Bolsonaro had attempted a coup, he “deliberately interrupted the course of events” and did not follow through.
However, Fux has since left the panel and will not participate in the review of the appeals.
De Moraes stated that there was sufficient evidence to prove Bolsonaro was aware of the coup plot that aimed to keep him in power.
“It was also demonstrated that the appellant acted freely and knowingly to spread false information about the electronic voting system and to draft a coup decree, which constituted the practice of a coup d’état and a violent attempt to abolish the rule of law,” he said.
Bolsonaro will only start serving time once appeals are exhausted.
The trial made global headlines. U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a 50% tariff on Brazilian imported goods and cited in part Bolsonaro’s case, which he called a “witch hunt.”
That triggered a sharp deterioration in U.S.-Brazil relations, which experts described as the lowest point in their more than 200-year history.
Relations have improved. Lula and Trump spoke on the phone then met last month in Malaysia at the ASEAN summit.
