Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was found guilty of attempting a coup after his 2022 election loss on Thursday.
A panel of Brazilian Supreme Court justices found that Bolsonaro took steps to stay in office after losing to left-wing candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Four of the five justices found Bolsonaro guilty on five counts, including attempting to stage a coup, being part of an armed criminal organization and attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law.
Bolsonaro’s attorneys say they will appeal the verdict to a full panel of all 11 justices on Brazil’s high court, per the Associated Press. If the verdict stands, the 70-year-old Bolsonaro could face decades in prison.
Justice Carmen Lucia said that Bolsonaro was an “instigator” and that he took “every possible move to maintain or seize power.” The lone dissenting judge, Justice Luis Fux, argued that Bolsonaro was being punished for thinking about a coup that he did not set in motion.
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“No one can be punished for cogitation,” Fux said in his dissent. “A coup d’état does not result from isolated acts or individual demonstrations lacking coordination, but rather from the actions of organized groups, equipped with resources and strategic capacity to confront and replace the incumbent power.”
Bolsonaro’s run of far-right authoritarianism in Brazil frequently earned him comparisons to U.S. President Donald Trump. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trump called the news “very bad for Brazil” and said he was “very unhappy” with the verdict.
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