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 in September convicted over a scheme to stop Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 elections 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 on Tuesday ruled the judgment was now final, with no further challenges allowed.
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 the capital Brasilia for tampering with his ankle monitor using a soldering iron.
Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes said there had been “very serious indications of a possible attempt to flee” during a planned vigil organized by Bolsonaro’s son outside his home.
The 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.
During a hearing on Sunday in Brasilia, Bolsonaro stated he “experienced a certain paranoia” due to medications he was on, and that he had no intention of fleeing.
Earlier, Bolsonaro had claimed he used a soldering iron on the monitoring bracelet out of “curiosity.”
The court ruled Bolsonaro will remain detained in the officers’ room — a secure space for protected prisoners — where he is currently held in Brasilia.
– ‘Extremely fragile’ –
Shortly before Bolsonaro tampered with the device, his lawyers had asked the court to allow him to serve out his sentence at home due to ill health.
The court rejected the petition when Bolsonaro was detained following the tampering incident.
His defense team said his detention is putting his life at risk due to a plethora of health issues.
Bolsonaro suffers ongoing consequences of a stab wound to the abdomen during a 2018 campaign trail attack and has required several follow-up surgeries.
He also suffers from persistent “uncontrollable hiccups” linked to gastric issues that have left him out of breath and fainting, according to his doctors.
His lawyers highlighted the fact that in May, another former president, Fernando Collor de Mello, was allowed to serve his nearly nine-year sentence for corruption at home, on health grounds.
Bolsonaro’s family have sought to spotlight the poor mental and physical state of the far-right firebrand who drew criticism during his presidency for attacks on minorities and a 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’s eating very little– there’s no way for someone who knows he didn’t commit a crime to see this as normal.”
Bolsonaro maintains his innocence, and that he is a victim of political persecution.
Bolsonaro’s legal woes have left Brazil’s large conservative electorate without a champion heading into 2026 presidential elections, in which Lula, 80, has said he will seek a fourth term.
Lula himself spent time in jail in between presidential mandates for corruption. He was imprisoned for a year and a half before the Supreme Court overturned his conviction.
