Controversial former Brazilian president Jair Messias Bolsonaro will eventually serve 27 years and three months in prison, becoming the first president in the country’s history to face a sentence.
On the orders of the Supreme Federal Court, the Federal Police transferred the 70-year-old Bolsonaro to the prison inside his headquarters in Brasilia on Saturday.
It is the first time in Brazil’s 200-year democratic history that a former head of state has been sentenced to long prison terms for plotting a coup and attacking democratic institutions.
The court found Bolsonaro guilty on serious charges of plotting a coup after the 2022 presidential election, using the military to seize power, encouraging attacks on the presidential palace and Congress, and damaging national heritage.
He had been under house arrest since August, but now that the final appeal period has ended, the court has ordered immediate execution of the sentence.
Bolsonaro’s supporters have described the decision as judicial revenge, while the current president’s government is calling it a victory for democracy.
