‎Brazil’s ex-President Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting coup

‎The former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison after being found guilty of plotting a military coup, BBC has reported.
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‎A panel of five Supreme Court justices handed down the sentence just hours after they had convicted the former leader.
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‎They ruled he was guilty of leading a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the 2022 election to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
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‎Four of the justices found him guilty while one voted to acquit him.
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‎Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest, did not attend the trial but has in the past called it a “witch hunt”.
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‎His words have previously been echoed by US President, Donald Trump, who imposed 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods, framing them as retaliation for Bolsonaro’s prosecution.
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‎Reacting to the guilty verdict, Trump said he found it “very surprising” and compared it to his own experience: “That’s very much like they tried to do with me. But they didn’t get away with it at all.”
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‎US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Brazil’s Supreme Court had “unjustly ruled to imprison former President Jair Bolsonaro” and threatened to “respond accordingly to this witch hunt”.
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‎Bolsonaro, who is 70, now faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison.
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‎His lawyers are expected to argue that he should be kept under house arrest instead of being sent to jail.