Lula vetoes bill to cut Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has vetoed a bill that would have dramatically reduced the prison sentence of former president Jair Bolsonaro, the measure passed by congress in December. Lula issued the veto on the third anniversary of riots by Bolsonaro supporters in Brasília over his defeat in the 2022 election.

The bill would have cut Bolsonaro’s sentence from 27 years to a little over two and also aimed to benefit others convicted over the coup plot and more than 100 people imprisoned for their role in the January 2023 riots. At the presidential palace, Lula said: "January 8th is etched in our history as the day of our democracy’s victory" and called it a "victory over those who tried to seize power by force, disregarding the will expressed at the ballot box".

Bolsonaro, 70, was sent to prison in November after being convicted of plotting a coup in a trial that was seen as a test of Brazilian democracy; he denied the charges. Prosecutors said the plot allegedly involved a plan to assassinate Lula, his vice-president, Geraldo Alckmin, and the supreme court judge Alexandre de Moraes, and that it failed because of a lack of support from the military's leadership.

Key Topics

Politics, Lula, Jair Bolsonaro, Brazilian Congress, Coup Plot, Geraldo Alckmin