Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday convicted Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of former US President Jair Bolsonaro, on charges of interfering in his father’s trial for plotting a coup.
A panel of judges unanimously convicted Eduardo Bolsonaro and sent him to four years and two months in prison for demanding the Trump administration’s intervention in his father’s trial.
Bolsonaro has been living in Texas since 2025 and now faces the risk of arrest if he returns to Brazil. The court’s decision also bars him from running for public office for eight years, but he can appeal the decision.
What did the court say?
The court said former lawmaker Eduardo had illegally interfered in his father’s trial last year by lobbying the U.S. government to threaten Brazilian officials to stop the trial.
The former president is serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup to overthrow the election results in 2022.
The judges ruled in favor of prosecutors, who accused Eduardo Bolsonaro of “intimidating judicial authorities and officials of other branches of government by telling them that he would secure US sanctions if the proceedings did not end well for his father.”
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, one of the Brazilian officials targeted by Trump’s sanctions, said, “It is not the role of a Brazilian federal deputy to lobby abroad against his own country.”
US President Donald Trump also imposed heavy tariffs on Brazil as part of a punitive measure he described as a “witch hunt” against Bolsonaro.
However, the tariffs were withdrawn after the first official meeting between leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Trump.
What did Bolsonaro say on the allegations?
Eduardo Bolsonaro said that his efforts in Washington were not aimed at acquitting his father, but at forcing Brazil’s Supreme Court to punish officials who he said were not following the Brazilian Constitution. Meanwhile his lawyers argued that there was not enough evidence to convict him.
The former MLA has claimed that he and his family are being targeted by the Supreme Court of Brazil. He said he had not been properly informed about the court’s legal process.
“This senseless lawsuit has only one real purpose: to remove my name from the elections,” said a statement from Bolsonaro, who plans to run as a Senate replacement candidate in October elections.
More recently, Eduardo has thrown his weight behind his brother Flavio Bolsonaro, who is preparing to run against outgoing Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva later this year. Polls show that he is da Silva’s strongest rival.
Both the brothers had met Trump at the White House last month.
Edited by: Rana Taha