Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a failed coup, after he exhausted all appeals.
The brash former army captain, who fired up Brazil’s right and reshaped the country’s politics, is ending a divisive career jailed in a small room at police headquarters equipped with a TV, mini-fridge, and air-conditioning.
Bolsonaro, 70, was convicted in September over a scheme to stop Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office as president after the 2022 elections, a plan that included a plot to kill the veteran leftist.
Prosecutors said the scheme failed only due to a lack of support from military top brass.
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal to his sentence earlier this month and ruled the judgment final. The court also ordered a military tribunal to decide whether Bolsonaro should be stripped of his captain’s rank.
Bolsonaro had been under house arrest until Saturday, when he was detained at police headquarters in 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 organised by his son outside his home.
The justice cited the nearby US embassy and Bolsonaro’s close relationship with former US President Donald Trump, suggesting he may have sought political asylum.
Bolsonaro said he acted out of “paranoia” induced by medication and denied attempting to escape.
The court ruled Bolsonaro will remain detained in the officers’ room, a secure space for protected prisoners, in Brasilia.
Five of his co-accused, including military generals and former ministers, also began serving sentences of between 19 and 26 years on Tuesday.
Former intelligence chief Alexandre Ramagem, sentenced to 16 years, was declared a fugitive after fleeing to the United States.
Bolsonaro’s defence lawyer, Paulo Cunha Bueno, called the closure of the case “surprising” and said he would file an appeal regardless.
Brazilian congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, the president’s son, was also charged on Tuesday with obstruction of justice after promoting Trump-era measures seeking to interfere with his father’s trial.
‘Extremely fragile’
Bolsonaro is the fourth former president to be imprisoned since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985.
In May, Fernando Collor de Mello was allowed to serve his nearly nine-year sentence for corruption at home due to health concerns.
Bolsonaro’s defence team argues he should receive the same treatment, warning that detention endangers his life.
He suffers the consequences of a stab wound sustained during a 2018 campaign attack and has required several follow-up surgeries.
He also experiences persistent “uncontrollable hiccups” linked to gastric issues, leaving him breathless and fainting, according to doctors.
Bolsonaro’s family has highlighted his poor mental and physical state. After visiting him on Tuesday, Carlos Bolsonaro described his father as “extremely fragile and psychologically devastated,” adding: “He’s eating very little — there’s no way for someone who knows he didn’t commit a crime to see this as normal.”
Bolsonaro, president from 2019 to 2022, maintains his innocence and claims political persecution.
With Bolsonaro sidelined, Brazil’s large conservative electorate lacks a champion ahead of the 2026 presidential elections, in which Lula, 80, has said he will seek a fourth term.
Lula himself was jailed between mandates for corruption but had his conviction overturned by the Supreme Court after a year and a half.
