Brazil's Supreme Court sentences Eduardo Bolsonaro to four years for coercion

Former deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, was sentenced on Tuesday to four years and two months in prison by Brazil's Supreme Court for coercing the justice system through his lobbying of the United States government to impose sanctions against the country. The sentence would be served under a semi-open regime and automatically entails his political disqualification.

The four judges of the First Chamber voted unanimously to convict, adding a fine of 100 minimum wages, equivalent to about 162,100 reais (close to $31,700). Eduardo Bolsonaro, who has lived in the United States since February last year, was not present at the hearing and was represented by a court-appointed defender; in December he had lost his deputy seat for excessive absences from lower-house sessions. The decision can be appealed.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the case rapporteur, said that Eduardo Bolsonaro himself admitted having moved to the United States in 2025 to lobby the US administration for sanctions against the judges prosecuting his father, with the intention of avoiding an eventual conviction. During his remarks he showed videos of the former deputy's statements and interviews about that lobbying in Washington. The threats materialized through sanctions against justices of this Court, against the prosecutor general of the Republic and against Brazil, through tariffs, the judge held, adding that the victim of those threats was the Brazilian judicial system.