(Brasilia) Jair Bolsonaro‘s defense presented Monday an appeal against the conviction of the former Brazilian president to 27 years in prison for attempted coup d’état to stay in power despite his electoral defeat in 2022.
The 70-year-old far-right leader was convicted on September 11 following a historic trial before Brazil’s Supreme Court.
The magistrates found him guilty of having been the leader of a “criminal organization” which conspired to ensure his “authoritarian maintenance in power”, whatever the result of the October 2022 election.
He ended up being defeated in the second round of this election against the current left-wing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
After the conviction, the former president’s lawyers announced that they would appeal “including at the international level”.
According to the document presented by the ex-president’s defense to which AFP had access, Jair Bolsonaro wishes to correct “the ambiguities, omissions, contradictions and obscurities” in the Supreme Court’s decision.
The Supreme Court judges do not have a specific deadline to rule on this appeal, but Mr. Bolsonaro can only be imprisoned after all possible appeals have been exhausted.
Although it is rare for the Supreme Court to agree to modify one of its decisions on the merits after an appeal, “it has already happened that in this court there are modifications, in particular on the calculation of the sentence”, explained to AFP Thiago Bottino, professor of law at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.
The former president (2019-2022) has currently been under house arrest since August.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, responsible for the trial, took this radical step, arguing that Mr. Bolsonaro had not respected a court decision which prohibited him from expressing himself on social networks.
PHOTO ERALDO PERES, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Judge Alexandre de Moraes
Health problems
Mr. Bolsonaro was diagnosed with skin cancer in mid-September, and also suffers from the after-effects of a stab wound to the abdomen in 2018.
Due to his health problems, he could ask to serve his sentence at home, like another former president, Fernando Collor de Mello (1989-1992).
The latter obtained last May the right to serve a sentence of more than eight years in prison at home for corruption.
The Bolsonarista camp is pushing for the approval in Parliament of an amnesty bill which would benefit the former president and hundreds of his supporters who participated in the attacks against places of power in Brasilia on January 8, 2023.
But the initiative lost momentum after massive protests across Brazil.
Diplomatic crisis
The Bolsonaro trial is the cause of an unprecedented diplomatic and trade crisis with the United States, which has begun to ease in recent weeks.
US President Donald Trump has imposed a punitive 50% tariff on some Brazilian goods, citing a supposed “witch hunt” against his far-right ally.
But the presidents of the two countries met on Sunday in Malaysia, and Lula said he was “convinced” that the two countries would find a “final solution” to their differences.
“We should be able to find good agreements for our two countries,” declared Mr. Trump.
