Brazil's Supreme Court rejected Bolsonaro's appeals and confirmed the sentence of 27 years in prison

Published at: 07/11/2025 11:12 PM

The First Chamber of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil (STF) unanimously rejected the last appeals of former President Jair Bolsonaro this Friday, November 07, and confirmed the 27-year prison sentence announced last September.

Judge Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur of the trial against the former president for his attempted coup d'etat in 2023, denied the appeals filed by Bolsonaro's defense and was seconded by magistrates Flávio Dino, Cristiano Zanin and Carmen Lucia Antunes, reported the Telesur website.

De Moraes acknowledged that there was no omission in the sentence, which declares the judicial circumstances unfavorable to the defendant, so the defensive argument considers it unfeasible.

The appeals analyzed were the last remedies that could be presented by the defense of the ultra-right leader, leaving the process closed when they were denied by a majority of votes.

Despite this, the defense could file one more appeal, an option that occurs when the sentence is given with only one vote of difference, but in this case it could be filed without even being analyzed since the decision was taken four votes to one.

In the documents presented, the defense insisted on an alleged “curtailment” of the right to defense due to the short time to review all the documentation submitted against the former president and called for a reduction in the sentence set at 27 years and three months in prison on September 11. However, all these arguments had already been presented and rejected at previous stages by the court.

Telesur's correspondent in Brazil, Nacho Lemus, through his account on the social network X, said that “everything indicates that between the end of the year and the beginning of 2026, Bolsonaro would go from his current house arrest (as a precautionary measure in the face of the risk of escape) to ordinary prison.”

If they were able to keep the former president under house arrest due to his age and state of health, he would still have to spend at least a week in a regular prison.

The jurist Marcelo Uchôa, a member of the Brazilian Association of Jurists for Democracy (ABJD) and the Prerogative Group, stated in an interview that the Supreme Court was reinforced in this case in its role as a Judicial Power in the defense of institutions, since the case analyzed an attempt to usurp popular democracy.

“This story of January 8th must faithfully conclude. We are talking about our democracy, which has matured. We fight for it, but we will win. We are winning,” added the jurist in an interview with Rádio Brasil de Fato's Conexão BdF program.

Jair Bolsonaro was convicted after the coup attempt after losing to President Lula da Silva in the 2022 elections. The plot, which he never wanted to recognize, tried to convince the armed forces to overthrow Lula with the participation of thousands of extreme right activists.

The Court also rejected the appeals filed by seven other convicts who were part of the coup attempt.