Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving his 27-year, three-month prison sentence for plotting a coup after losing the last election.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes ruled on Tuesday that the case had reached its final ruling and that no further appeals were possible.
Bolsonaro, 70, was found guilty of leading a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after losing the 2022 election to his leftist rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
He will begin serving his sentence in a federal police cell in the capital, Brasilia, where he has been detained since Saturday after being considered a flight risk and removed from house arrest.
At a hearing on Sunday, Bolsonaro admitted trying to open his ankle monitor with a soldering iron until he “came to his senses,” court documents show.
He said he had no intention of fleeing and blamed drug-induced “paranoia” for the damage he caused to the monitor.
Judge Moraes on Tuesday ordered that full-time medical care be provided to Bolsonaro, whose medical team has previously said his health is worsening.
Supreme Court judges said in September, when Bolsonaro was convicted of plotting a coup, that he was aware of plans to assassinate Lula and his vice presidential running mate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to arrest and execute Moraes, who has been overseeing Bolsonaro’s trial.
The conspiracy failed to gain the support of army and air force commanders. Lula was sworn in without incident on January 1, 2023.
But a week later, on January 8, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia. Security forces intervened and around 1,500 people were detained.
The judges determined that the rioters had been incited by Bolsonaro, whose plan, they said, was for the military to intervene and return him to power.
Bolsonaro was also banned from running for public office until 2060, eight years after the end of his sentence.
The former president called the trial a “witch hunt” designed to prevent him from running in the 2026 presidential election.
Judge Moraes also ordered Tuesday that others convicted of being Bolsonaro’s accomplices must begin their sentences.
Among them are General Augusto Heleno, former Minister of Institutional Security, and General Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira, former Minister of Defense.
