BRASILIA, Brazil(National times)- Brazil\u2019s former President Jair Bolsonaro has been convicted of attempting a coup to stay in office after losing his reelection bid in 2022. He is the first former president found guilty of trying to overturn an election in the country with the largest economy in Latin America. Bolsonaro has always denied wrongdoing. Four of the five justices on the Supreme Court panel voted to convict him Thursday and sentenced him to 27 years and three months in prison. But this doesn\u2019t mean he will go to prison right away. Here\u2019s what to know about the process against Bolsonaro and what\u2019s coming next:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The charges<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Prosecutors charged him with five crimes, including attempting a coup after losing the 2022 race to President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, participating in an armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, damage qualified by violence, and deterioration of listed heritage. According to the evidence presented by the attorney general, Bolsonaro gathered Cabinet and military officials to discuss an emergency decree that would have suspended the election results in order to investigate unproven electoral fraud claims. Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the case, said Bolsonaro carried out a series of acts from 2021 through Jan. 8, 2023 that constituted the attempted coup. The actions included casting doubt on Brazil\u2019s electronic voting system, drafting a decree to annul the election results and encouraging the riots on Jan. 8, 2023, that aimed to force a military takeover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Will Bolsonaro go to prison?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n He won\u2019t go to prison now, but he will remain under house arrest. With the sentence announced, the court panel has up to 60 days to publish the ruling. Once it does, Bolsonaro\u2019s attorneys have five days to file motions for clarification. His lawyers have said that they will try to appeal both the conviction and sentence before the full Supreme Court of 11 justices, although some experts think it\u2019s unlikely to be accepted. \u201cIt\u2019s unlikely, but not impossible, that there will be appeals to the full Supreme Court,\u201d said Rafael Mafei, lawyer and law professor at University of S\u00e3o Paulo and ESPM university. \u201cBut of course, the defenses will try, because they should,\u201d he added. The Supreme Court\u2019s press office told The Associated Press that, according to the court\u2019s jurisprudence, the full court can accept an appeal only if there\u2019s at least two dissenting votes in a ruling. And in this case, only one of the five justices disagreed and called for Bolsonaro\u2019s acquittal. Once there\u2019s a firm sentence, Bolsonaro could go to prison. But it is unlikely he would be transferred to a regular prison. As a former president, he has the right to special incarceration, which could take place at the Federal Police\u2019s main building in Brasilia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reaction by the United States<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bolsonaro\u2019s trial got renewed attention after U.S. President Donald Trump linked a 50% tariff on imported Brazilian goods to his ally\u2019s legal situation, calling it a \u201cwitch hunt.\u201d Observers think the U.S. might announce new sanctions against Brazil after the trial, and the Trump administration on Thursday hinted that it might.Trump said he was \u201cvery unhappy\u201d with the conviction, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on his X account that the U.S. government \u201cwill respond accordingly to this witch hunt.\u201d Government officials or Supreme Court justices could be sanctioned, like de Moraes already was in late July, said Oliver Stuenkel, a professor of international relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think tank and university. he reaction \u201ccould also involve broader visa restrictions for government officials, or more tariffs,\u201d Stuenkel said. \u201cIt\u2019s quite unpredictable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s next for the far-right in Brazil?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite his legal woes, Bolsonaro remains a powerful political player in Brazil. The conviction could add pressure on him to pick a political heir to possibly challenge Lula in the general elections next year. It could also compel allied lawmakers to seek some amnesty for the former president through Congress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BRASILIA, Brazil(National times)- Brazil\u2019s former President Jair Bolsonaro has been convicted of attempting a coup to stay in office after losing his reelection bid in 2022. He is the first former president found guilty of trying to overturn an election in the country with the largest economy in Latin America. Bolsonaro has always denied wrongdoing. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n