Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro must begin serving his 27-year prison sentence for plotting an attempted coup, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ruled Tuesday.
The former president’s defense team had chosen not to file a final appeal after his conviction for plotting a coup in 2022 to overthrow his successor, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. As a result, Moraes requested that the conviction be deemed final, quashing any chance of further appeals and triggering Bolsonaro’s 27-year sentence.
Bolsonaro has been jailed in Brazil’s Federal Police headquarters since Saturday, after police took him into custody for tampering with his court-ordered ankle monitor. On Tuesday, Moraes said Bolsonaro would serve out his sentence at the headquarters.
Bolsonaro’s attorney Paulo Cunha Bueno said in a post on X that the former president would pursue an appeal to fight the conviction, despite the court ruling that their decision is final.
On Saturday, Bolsonaro’s lawyers described the former president’s arrest as “unjustifiable” and claimed that his health is at risk while imprisoned. Later, the Supreme Court released a video, which it says shows Bolsonaro admitting to tampering with his ankle monitor with a soldering iron. He allegedly said that he did so not as an attempt to escape from house arrest, but rather because new medications had caused him to hallucinate.
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