From the BBC:
“Bolsonaro ordered to start
serving 27-year prison sentence for Brazil coup plot”
Brazil's Supreme Court has
ordered that right-wing former president Jair Bolsonaro begin serving his
prison sentence of 27 years and three months for plotting a coup after he lost
the last election. Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Tuesday ruled that the case
had reached its final judgement and that no further appeals were possible. Bolsonaro,
70, was found guilty of leading a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power
after he lost the 2022 election to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva. He will begin serving his sentence in a federal police jail cell in the
capital, Brasilia, where he has been detained since Saturday after being deemed
a flight risk and removed from home detention. At a hearing on Sunday,
Bolsonaro admitted trying to open his ankle monitor with a soldering iron until
he "came to his senses", court documents show. He said he had had no
intention of fleeing and blamed medicine-induced "paranoia" for
damage he caused to the monitor.
Justice Moraes on Tuesday
mandated that full-time medical care be given to Bolsonaro, whose medical team
has previously said he is suffering from worsening health. Supreme Court
justices said in September, when Bolsonaro was found guilty of plotting a coup,
that he had known of plans to assassinate Lula and his vice-presidential
running mate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to arrest and execute Moraes, who has been
overseeing Bolsonaro's trial. The conspiracy failed to get the backing of the
army and air force commanders. Lula was sworn in without incident on 1 January
2023.
But a week later, on 8 January,
thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in Brasília. The
security forces intervened and about 1,500 people were arrested. The justices
found that the rioters had been incited by Bolsonaro, whose plan, they said,
was for the military to step in and return him to power. Bolsonaro was also
barred from running for public office until 2060 - eight years after the end of
his sentence. The former president called the trial a "witch hunt"
designed to prevent him running in the 2026 presidential election. Justice
Moraes also ordered on Tuesday that others found guilty of being Bolsonaro's
co-conspirators must begin their sentences. They include Gen Augusto Heleno,
former minister for institutional security, and Gen Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de
Oliveira, former defence minister.
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