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Supreme Court Brazil: Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was arrested by the police on Saturday. The former President has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a coup in the country.
Supreme Court Brazil: Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was arrested by the police on Saturday. The former President has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a coup in the country. The former President was taken to the police force headquarters in the capital Brasília amid tight security. The police officer said that the action has been taken on the request of the Supreme Court of Brazil. Bolsonaro aide Andrea Sirino told The Associated Press that the arrest took place around 6 a.m. Saturday. Cirino said the 70-year-old former president was taken to the federal police headquarters from his home in a gated community in the Jardim Botanico area. Bolsonaro was placed under house arrest in early August, weeks before he was convicted in a coup trial. Citing his poor health, his lawyers were requesting the Brazilian Supreme Court to keep him at home to serve his sentence.
Bolsonaro was the President from 2019 to 2022
Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes heard the coup case. Bolsonaro was the President of Brazil from 2019 to 2022. He is expected to begin serving his sentence sometime next week as the former president has exhausted all appeals against his coup conviction. A police official said Saturday’s pre-arrest did not mean Bolsonaro would remain at federal police headquarters to serve his sentence. According to Brazilian law, the sentence of all convicts should start from prison. Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, one of the former president’s sons, has been appealing to his supporters to take to the streets in defense of his father since Thursday. Hundreds of Bolsonaro’s supporters have claimed that they are being politically persecuted. Supporters are expected to rally outside the federal police headquarters. The former president and several of his associates were convicted by a panel of Supreme Court judges of attempting to overthrow Brazil’s democracy following his 2022 election defeat to President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva.
Ineligible to contest elections till 2030
Prosecutors said the coup plot included plans to kill Lula and encourage an uprising in early 2023. Bolsonaro was also found guilty of leading an armed criminal organization and attempting to violently end the rule of democratic law. Bolsonaro has denied doing any such thing. He remains a prominent figure in Brazilian politics, despite a ruling by Brazil’s top electoral court making him ineligible to run for re-election until at least 2030. Surveys show that he will be a strong candidate in next year’s elections if he is allowed to contest. Olsonaro is an ally of US President Donald Trump, who has called his trial a witch hunt. Bolsonaro was mentioned in a July order by the US administration to increase tariffs by 50 percent on several Brazilian exports. Trump on Friday lifted most of the high tariffs imposed on Brazilian exports.
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