In Brazil: Seven Bolsonaro Supporters Sentenced to Prison for Plotting a Coup.

Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday sentenced seven people involved in an attempted coup by supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to prison.

The sentences reached up to 17 years, while the former right-wing president remains under house arrest awaiting final judgment.

The Supreme Court had previously sentenced Bolsonaro, 70, to 27 years in prison after convicting him of conspiring to remain in power after losing the 2022 general election to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The new sentences include seven people close to Bolsonaro, including a federal police officer, five military personnel, and the head of an opinion polling institute, after they were convicted of participating in “digital militias” that spread false information about the electronic voting system, in an attempt to undermine citizens’ confidence in electoral institutions.

Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who presided over Bolsonaro’s trial, explained that “the defendants fabricated and disseminated misleading narratives aimed at inciting chaos and undermining stability,” noting that the penalties ranged from 7 and a half to 17 years in prison.

De Moraes confirmed that the convicts have five days to appeal the verdicts from the date of their publication, while Bolsonaro himself awaits the publication of the official verdict against him in preparation for appealing it, noting that he is prohibited from using social media by court order.

In a related context, US Senator Marco Rubio commented on the verdict against the former Brazilian president, saying that Washington “will respond to the political targeting campaign against Bolsonaro,” describing the rulings as “an attempt to silence the conservative opposition in Latin America.”

US President Donald Trump had previously imposed punitive tariffs on Brazil, considering that what is happening represents “a fierce campaign against his ally, former President Bolsonaro.”

The Supreme Court is expected to issue its verdicts against 16 other defendants in the coming weeks in the same case that continues to shake the political scene in Brazil.

The case has brought back to the forefront the deep division in Brazilian society between supporters of the populist right led by Bolsonaro and the left led by Lula da Silva, especially after the attack carried out by Bolsonaro supporters in January 2023 on the headquarters of the three powers in the capital, Brasilia, in a scene reminiscent of the storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters in Washington in 2021.