Brazil’s Supreme Court convicted ex-president Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday of coup plotting by a four-to-one vote in a landmark case that could land the far-right leader in prison for years.
A majority of four judges found the 70-year-old guilty of plotting to claw back power after his defeat in October 2022 elections by leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
In August, a Brazilian judge placed Bolsonaro under house arrest for breaking a social media ban, escalating a dramatic standoff between the court and the politician, who is accused of plotting a coup. President Donald Trump described Bolsonaro’s conviction on Thursday as “very surprising”.
Trump had sought to punish Brazil, a longtime US ally, for what he sees as a politically motivated “witch hunt” targeting Bolsonaro by imposing eye-watering tariffs on Latin America’s biggest economy.
The 70-year-old Bolsonaro is banned from social media for the duration of the proceedings, and third parties are barred from sharing his public remarks.