BRASILIA (AFP) Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a failed coup, after exhausting all appeals.
The brash former army captain who ignited Brazil’s right and reshaped the country’s politics is ending a controversial career in prison in a small room at police headquarters equipped with a television, mini-fridge and air conditioning.
Bolsonaro, 70, was convicted in September for a plan to prevent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office as president after the 2022 election, which included a plot to kill the veteran leftist.
Prosecutors said the plan failed only because of a lack of support from the military’s top brass.
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal against his conviction earlier this month and ruled on Tuesday that the judgment was now final.
The court also ordered a military tribunal to decide whether Bolsonaro should be stripped of his captaincy.
Bolsonaro was under house arrest until Saturday, when he was arrested at police headquarters in the capital Brasilia for tampering with his ankle monitor using a soldering iron.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said there were signs Bolsonaro planned to flee during a vigil organized by his son outside his home.
Justice pointed to the location of the nearby US embassy and Bolsonaro’s close relationship with US President Donald Trump, suggesting he may have tried to escape to seek political asylum.
Bolsonaro said he acted out of “paranoia” induced by the drugs he was taking and denied trying to escape.
The court ruled that Bolsonaro would remain detained in the officers’ room – a secure space for protected prisoners – where he is currently being held in Brasilia.
Five of Bolsonaro’s co-defendants, including military generals and former ministers, also began serving sentences ranging from 19 to 26 years on Tuesday.
Its former intelligence chief, Alexandre Ramagem, sentenced to 16 years in prison, was declared a fugitive after recently fleeing to the United States.
Bolsonaro’s lawyer, Paulo Cunha Bueno, said the closure of the case was “surprising” and that he would appeal anyway.
– ‘Extremely fragile’ –
Bolsonaro is the fourth former president imprisoned since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985.
In May, Fernando Collor de Mello was allowed to serve his nearly nine-year prison sentence for corruption at home, for health reasons.
Bolsonaro’s defense team wants him to get the same treatment, saying his detention puts his life in danger.
Bolsonaro is suffering from the effects of a stab wound to the abdomen during a 2018 election attack and has required several follow-up surgeries.
He also suffers from persistent “uncontrollable hiccups” linked to stomach problems that leave him short of breath and fainting, according to his doctors.
Bolsonaro’s family has sought to highlight the poor mental and physical state of the far-right firebrand who drew criticism during his presidency for his attacks on minorities and his lack of empathy for those dying from Covid.
After a visit to his father on Tuesday, Carlos Bolsonaro described him as “extremely fragile and psychologically devastated.”
“He eats very little. There is no way for someone who knows he hasn’t committed a crime to consider this normal.”
Bolsonaro, who served as president from 2019 to 2022, says he is innocent and a victim of political persecution.
With Bolsonaro out of the race, Brazil’s large conservative electorate is left without a champion heading into the 2026 presidential elections, in which Lula, 80, has said he will seek a fourth term.
Lula himself spent time in prison between presidential terms for corruption. He was imprisoned for a year and a half before the Supreme Court overturned his conviction.
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