The far-right coup leader could be free in a couple of years.
In the early hours of Wednesday, Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies approved a bill aimed at reducing the sentences of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro and other military officers and ex-ministers who attempted to carry out a coup after the 2022 presidential election.
RELATED:
Bolsonaro Ordered to Remain in Closed Prison Regime for at Least Seven Years
Approved with 291 votes in favor, 148 against and one abstention, the measure must now be debated in the Senate. If passed, the bill would allow Bolsonaro to leave the closed-regime prison system in about two years, even though he was sentenced by the Supreme Court in September to 27 years in prison.
Proposed by legislator Paulo Pereira da Silva, the bill prevents the sentences for two of the crimes for which the far-right leader was duly convicted from being added together: the attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law and the attempted coup.
Arguing that the offenses are similar in nature, the bill proposes applying only the harsher of the two penalties. In this case, that would be the charge of attempting a coup, which carries a sentence of up to 12 years and would not be added to the sentence for attempted violent abolition, which carries up to eight years in prison.
🚨 VERGONHOSO!
Após o sinal da TV Câmara ser cortado, o deputado Glauber Braga ser retirado com violência da Câmara e a imprensa ser proibida de estar no Plenário, a Polícia Legislativa simplesmente saiu AGREDINDO JORNALISTAS.
É assim que vão aprovar a anistia pro Bolsonaro?… pic.twitter.com/NqoXp0P2CY
— ERIKA HILTON (@ErikakHilton) December 9, 2025
The text reads, “After the TV Camara signal was cut off, legislator Glauber Braga was violently expelled from the Chamber and the press was prohibited from being in the plenary session. The Legislative Police simply attacked the journalists. Is this how they are going to approve the amnesty for Bolsonaro? Remember: You are the one who pays for all this. Congress enemy of the people.”
The Pereira da Silva’s bill also proposes reducing sentences by one-third to two-thirds when coup-related crimes are committed as part of a “multitude,” as was the case in the Jan. 8, 2023 assault on the headquarters of the Executive Branch, Congress and the Supreme Court by Bolsonaro supporters.
Finally, the bill allows for a faster progression from a closed to a semi-open regime for those convicted of these crimes once they have served at least one-sixth of their sentence—or, in cases involving violence, one-fourth.
During the parliamentary debate, Pereira da Silva argued that the bill seeks to “correct the excesses” in the sentences imposed by the Supreme Court but “without avoiding accountability.” That interpretation, however, has been sharply criticized by progressive lawmakers. “This chamber is embracing coup-mongering,” said Lindbergh Farias, leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) caucus.
Initially, Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party sought an amnesty that would fully nullify the former president’s sentence, but that proposal was rejected by most parties, including some right-wing parties that had to settle for a less ambitious version.
On Wednesday, the debate saw moments of tension, with pushing and shoving between lawmakers and members of the legislative security force. Left-wing legislator Glauber Graga occupied the speaker’s chair as a form of protest before being violently removed by security personnel. Parliamentary authorities attempted to conceal the incident by expelling journalists from the chamber floor.
#FromTheSouth News Bits | Brazil: Judge Alexandre de Moraes voted against the appeals of former president Jair Bolsonaro and in favor of upholding his conviction for attempted coup d’état. pic.twitter.com/RXi80i8Feb
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) November 11, 2025
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.