Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro began his 27-year prison sentence on Tuesday for leading an attempted coup, to the surprise of many in the South American country who doubted he would ever end up behind bars.
Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the case, ruled that Bolsonaro will remain in custody after his preventive arrest on Saturday.
Supporters and opponents of the controversial leader have gathered outside the federal police headquarters since the order was issued. Some called for Bolsonaro’s release and others toasted his imprisonment.
The far-right leader had been under house arrest since August and was arrested on Saturday after trying to break his ankle ligament. Bolsonaro blamed ‘hallucinations’ a claim that De Moraes rejected in his preventive arrest warrant.
Bolsonaro will not have any contact with the few other prisoners at federal police headquarters. His 12 square meter room has a bed, a private bathroom, air conditioning, a television and a desk, according to the federal police.
De Moraes noted on Tuesday that Bolsonaro’s defense had exhausted all appeals to his conviction. His lawyers disagree and vow to continue filing requests for house arrest due to the former leader’s poor health. The Supreme Court judge has already ruled against it.
“There is no legal option for any other appeal,” De Moraes said in his decision.
Brazilian criminal law could also have allowed the 70-year-old to be transferred to a local prison or to a prison room in a military facility in the capital Brasilia.
The former president and several of his allies were convicted by a panel of Supreme Court judges of attempting to overthrow Brazil’s democracy following his 2022 election defeat.
The plot included plans to assassinate President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Judge de Moraes. The plan also included encouraging an uprising in early 2023.
The former president was also found guilty of, among other things, leading an armed criminal organization and attempting to violently abolish the democratic constitutional state.
Bolsonaro has always denied his wrongdoing.
Outside the Federal Police building, about a dozen Bolsonaro supporters, dressed in the yellow and green of the Brazilian flag, shouted foul chants and asked Congress to pass a bill to grant the former president and his allies some sort of amnesty.
“I am furious. This is the best president of my life, my friend. This is a great injustice,” said Eliane Leandro, 61, a hard-core Bolsonaro supporter who says she will come to federal police headquarters every day until he is released. “I hate you, Alexandre de Moraes. You deserve hell.”
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34-year-old Sao Paulo city councilor Keit Lima had very different feelings. She brought champagne and shared it with other black women who had come from a march in Brasilia to celebrate Bolsonaro’s imprisonment.
“Today we can breathe and continue fighting for our democracy,” Lima said. “Our democracy is young, but we want it to last for a long time.”
Two others convicted, Augusto Heleno and Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, both army generals, were sent to a military facility in Brasilia to serve their sentences. Former Justice Minister Anderson Torres is now imprisoned in Papuda Prison, also in Brazil’s capital.
Admiral Almir Garnier will serve his term at the naval facilities in Brasilia.
Bolsonaro’s running mate and former Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto, another army general, will remain in prison at a military facility in Rio de Janeiro.
De Moraes also confirmed that parliamentarian and former head of Brazilian intelligence Alexandre Ramagem is at large in the United States.
Bolsonaro remains a key figure in Brazilian politics despite being ineligible to run for office until at least 2030 following a separate ruling by Brazil’s top electoral court. The first day of his prison term should mark an extension of that deadline until 2033.
Polls show he would be a competitive candidate in next year’s elections if he were to run.
The former president is an ally of US President Donald Trump, who has called the trial of the former Brazilian leader a “witch hunt”. Bolsonaro was named in a July U.S. government order to increase tariffs by 50% on several Brazilian exports.
Relations between the two countries have since improved, with Lula and Trump meeting in Malaysia during the ASEAN summit in October. Most of those higher rates have been eliminated.
The US also imposed sanctions on De Moraes and other Brazilian officials.
The measures in support of Bolsonaro did not have the desired effect and the process continued nevertheless. Lula’s popularity was increased by the perception that he was defending Brazilian sovereignty.
Bolsonaro is not the first former president to spend time behind bars. His predecessor Michel Temer (2016-2018) and his successor Lula have also been in prison. Fernando Collor de Mello, who ruled between 1990 and 1992, is currently under house arrest following a corruption conviction.
Bolsonaro is the first to be convicted of an attempted coup.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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