Former Brazilian President and Trump Ally Begins Prison Sentence
Brazil’s political establishment has taken its most aggressive step yet against former President Jair Bolsonaro, ordering him to immediately begin serving a 27-year prison sentence stemming from what critics say is a transparently political prosecution designed to erase him from public life.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes — the same judge at the center of Brazil’s sweeping speech-policing regime — ruled Tuesday that Bolsonaro must start serving his sentence after his legal team declined to file a final appeal. Bolsonaro was convicted earlier this year for allegedly plotting to reverse the 2022 election of far-left President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
According to CNN, once Bolsonaro’s attorneys declined to pursue the last procedural maneuver available, Moraes moved quickly to have the conviction recognized as final, effectively shutting down any remaining appeal options and triggering enforcement of the decades-long sentence.
Bolsonaro has remained in custody at the Federal Police headquarters since Saturday, after he was arrested for tampering with a court-mandated ankle monitor. On Tuesday, Moraes announced that Bolsonaro would serve his entire sentence in the same facility — a decision that has drawn fierce criticism from conservatives inside Brazil and abroad.
Despite the ruling, Bolsonaro’s attorney Paulo Cunha Bueno insisted on X that the former president would continue seeking ways to challenge the conviction.
On Saturday, Bolsonaro’s defense team denounced his arrest as “unjustifiable,” warning that his health could be at risk while in detention. But hours later, Brazil’s Supreme Court released a video it claims shows Bolsonaro confessing to using a soldering iron to damage the tracking device. Court officials said Bolsonaro insisted he was not attempting to escape but acted while suffering hallucinations caused by new medication.
The criminal case dates back to the chaotic post-election period following Bolsonaro’s 2022 loss to Lula da Silva. Federal investigators allege that Bolsonaro and close allies discussed an “illegal strategy” to stay in power, culminating in the Jan. 8, 2023 riots in Brasília — an event the Left has long used to draw comparisons to the Jan. 6 unrest in the United States.
The prosecution of Bolsonaro has increasingly strained relations between Brasília and Washington since President Donald Trump returned to office in 2024. Trump, a strong ally of Bolsonaro, imposed steep tariffs on selected Brazilian imports last July and publicly urged Brazil to end what he called a politically driven “witch hunt.” CNN noted that by the time Bolsonaro was arrested this weekend, the White House had already granted tariff exceptions for several major Brazilian exports.
Asked about the arrest Saturday, President Trump said he had not yet been briefed but called the news “too bad.”
The Biden-era approach of appeasing Brazil’s judiciary ended abruptly last month when Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sweeping U.S. visa revocations targeting Moraes, several allied judges, and their families. Rubio described the actions as a direct response to a campaign of repression against conservatives in Brazil.
“[President Trump] made clear that his administration will hold accountable foreign nationals who are responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States,” Rubio said.
“Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes’s political witch hunt against Jair Bolsonaro created a persecution and censorship complex so sweeping that it not only violates basic rights of Brazilians, but also extends beyond Brazil’s shores to target Americans,” Rubio continued.
“I have therefore ordered visa revocations for Moraes and his allies on the court, as well as their immediate family members effective immediately,” he noted further.
The secretary’s announcement came shortly after Brazil’s high court issued restraining orders and search warrants against Bolsonaro, barred him from communicating with foreign officials, placed him under electronic monitoring, and ordered a police raid of his home, according to The Hill.
“I feel supreme humiliation,” Bolsonaro told Reuters in a recent interview. “I am 70 years old, I was president of the republic for four years.”
Bolsonaro and his supporters maintain that the charges — centered on an alleged “coup” attempt — are nothing more than political retribution by the socialist government and its judicial allies. In addition to the prison sentence, Bolsonaro has been banned from seeking public office until 2030, The Hill reported, effectively sidelining one of the country’s most significant conservative figures for the remainder of the decade.