Brazil lawmakers reduce Bolsonaro prison term in setback for Lula
Brazil’s Congress dealt President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a stinging political blow by overturning his veto of legislation that sharply cuts the prison term of his longtime rival Jair Bolsonaro, marking Lula’s second significant setback in two...
Brazil’s Congress dealt President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a stinging political blow by overturning his veto of legislation that sharply cuts the prison term of his longtime rival Jair Bolsonaro, marking Lula’s second significant setback in two days.
Bolsonaro, the former president, 71, was sentenced last year to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup after trying to remain in power following his defeat to Lula in the 2022 election.
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Lula, a leftist leader seeking to block the measure, had opposed an effort by the conservative-controlled Congress to slash Bolsonaro’s sentence to just over two years.
Lawmakers ultimately overturned the veto, approving changes to the way prison sentences are calculated.
The result adds to Lula’s political troubles as he seeks a fourth term, coming just after the Senate rejected his nominee for the Supreme Court, Jorge Messias.
It was the first rejection of a president’s choice for Brazil’s highest court in decades, highlighting the country’s sharp political rifts with presidential elections just five months away.
Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, son of Jair Bolsonaro, celebrates during a session of the Brazilian National Congress after the opposition carried the vote overriding Lula’s veto
Brasilia rioters set to gain
Bolsonaro, a former army captain, served one term as president from 2019 to 2022.
His coup case had been widely viewed as a major test of Brazil’s democratic institutions.
The revised sentencing law reaches beyond the right-wing firebrand himself.
It also benefits Bolsonaro’s fellow defendants in the coup case, along with dozens of people jailed over the pro-Bolsonaro riots that rocked Brasilia in 2023.
On 8 January that year, Bolsonaro supporters ransacked government buildings in unrest that echoed the January 2021 assault on the US Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump.
Bolsonaro has denied all charges against him.
He and his allies, among them Trump, say he has been targeted in a left-wing judicial “witch hunt.”
Last month, he was transferred to house arrest while recovering after being hospitalised with bronchopneumonia.