Former President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has been convicted of plotting a coup to remain in office after losing the 2022 Brazilian election.
The majority of Brazilian Supreme Court justices voted on Thursday to convict Bolsonaro.
The decision in the landmark case became apparent when the third judge of the five-member panel determined that Bolsonaro was guilty of all five counts he faced.
Alexandre de Moraes, who was the first justice to cast a guilty vote on Tuesday, said the defendants “committed all the criminal offences imputed by the Attorney General’s Office.”
Justices Flávio Dino and Cármen Lúcia also voted to convict, sealing Bolsonaro’s fate with a simple majority of three judges.
Once all five justices have voted, the panel will decide on Bolsonaro’s sentence, which could amount to decades in prison. The 70-year-old former president is currently under house arrest.
Bolsonaro was charged with plotting a military coup, taking part in an armed criminal organisation, attempting to abolish Brazil’s democratic order by force, committing violent acts against state institutions and damaging protected public property during the storming of government buildings by his supporters on January 8, 2023.
Part of the coup plot, prosecutors alleged, involved a plan to potentially use explosives, weapons of war or poison to assassinate leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, his Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw Bolsonaro’s trial.
The evidence against Bolsonaro centred on how he tried to stay in power after losing the presidential election in 2022 to Lula da Silva.
Federal police said Bolsonaro had “full knowledge” of a plan to overturn the election results, pressure the military to intervene, and even create a parallel “crisis management office” to run the government.
Prosecutors had alleged the plot began in 2021, with efforts to undermine public trust in the electoral system.
After Bolsonaro’s election defeat in 2022, prosecutors said defendants attempted to overturn the results by encouraging Bolsonaro supporters to mobilise in Brasília, the country’s capital, where they stormed and vandalised the three seats of government on January 8, 2023.
Moraes, who was the first justice to cast a guilty vote on Tuesday, said the defendants “committed all the criminal offences imputed by the Attorney General’s Office.”
Bolsonaro and other defendants in the trial have denied wrongdoing.
His lawyers have said that they will appeal the verdict to the full Supreme Court of 11 justices.
Bolsonaro has not attended the court and has only sent his lawyers.
Defence lawyers could still file appeals to the full 11-count Supreme Court, but once those challenges are exhausted, the ruling becomes final and any prison terms can be enforced.
The trial, which comes ahead of the 2026 general election, has polarised Brazil. Over the weekend, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters filled the streets on the country’s Independence Day to protest the legal proceedings.
Bolsonaro’s eldest son, Flavio Bolsonaro, a senator in Brazil, criticised the outcome and took aim at Moraes. “Under the pretext of defending democracy, the pillars of democracy were broken to condemn an innocent person who dared not to bow to a dictator named Alexandre de Moraes,” he said on X on Thursday.
Bolsonaro has long insisted that the trial amounted to a political witch hunt.
That sentiment has been echoed by one of his biggest political allies, US President Donald Trump.
In July, Trump imposed a 50% tariff on Brazil after threatening to do so if the country did not end the trial against the former president. His administration has also sanctioned Moraes for what it considers “serious human rights violations,” and announced visa restrictions against him and other court officials over Bolsonaro’s trial.
Bolsonaro’s supporters and some on Brazil’s right have welcomed Trump’s interest in the case. But the current administration in Brasília, and many others in the Latin American nation, see it as the US meddling in its affairs.
Bolsonaro joins a growing list of Latin American leaders to be convicted of a crime in recent years.
Last month, former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe was sentenced to 12 years of house arrest after being found guilty of procedural fraud and witness bribery, a verdict he is appealing.
In 2022, Argentina’s ex-leader Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was convicted of corruption related to public works contracts.
And in 2017, Brazil’s current President Lula da Silva was found guilty of corruption and money laundering, serving more than a year in prison before his conviction was later annulled.
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