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Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a prison term for conspiring to remain in power after losing the last election.
Nov. 25, 2025Updated 4:19 p.m. ET
Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to start serving a 27-year sentence for overseeing a failed plot to hold onto power after losing the country’s last election.
After the nation’s top court rejected an initial appeal by Mr. Bolsonaro’s lawyers challenging his sentence, the court ruled that he will begin serving his sentence at a federal police facility in Brasília, the capital.
The court’s ruling brought to a close a multiyear effort to hold Mr. Bolsonaro accountable for his role in a far-reaching plot to overturn the results of the 2022 election and remain in power following his loss at the polls.
The case became a severe test of Brazil’s young democracy after President Trump tried to help his political ally by imposing punishing tariffs and sanctions in an attempt to pressure Brazil into dropping the case. But Brazilian authorities did not cave and Mr. Trump appears to have moved on.
Mr. Bolsonaro is already in custody at the federal police facility. He was arrested on Saturday after he told the police that he took a soldering iron to the ankle monitor tracking his movements while under house arrest, setting off suspicions that he was trying to flee. Mr. Bolsonaro blamed his medications for causing “hallucinations” and “paranoia” that the device might be used to eavesdrop on him.
Mr. Bolsonaro’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The former president’s defense team had asked the court to allow Mr. Bolsonaro to serve his sentence at home because of health problems linked to complications from a stabbing attack in 2018.
