Brazil: Bolsonaro’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to overturn his sentence in coup case

Lawyers for former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro filed a new appeal on Friday asking for the cancellation of his trial on coup plotting charges in which he was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Defense is calling for the cancellation of criminal proceedings and Bolsonaro’s acquittal, three days after the Supreme Court ordered the convicted former president to begin serving his sentence.

Bolsonaro was tried and convicted by a five-member Supreme Court bench, as his lawyers are now appealing the verdict to the full 11-member tribunal in a bid to overturn his entire trial.

The defense’s appeal states that Bolsonaro’s unjust conviction must be presented to the full body of the Federal Supreme Court for scrutiny, and in the end his innocence will be shown and declared.

The district court that convicted Bolsonaro said all avenues of appeal had been exhausted.

Bolsonaro, the former army chief who rose to the Brazilian right and reshaped the country’s political landscape, is ending a busy career in his prison at a police headquarters in Brasilia.

The 70-year-old was convicted in September of plotting to prevent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from becoming president after he won the 2022 election, and the plan included a plot to kill the veteran leftist politician.

Bolsonaro, who held the presidency from 2019 to 2022, maintains that he is innocent and a victim of political persecution.

Bolsonaro has the backing of US President Donald Trump, who has been highly critical of his ally’s prosecution and imposed punitive tariffs on Brazil that were later scrapped.

Bolsonaro is the fourth former president of Brazil to go to jail since the end of military rule in 1985.