MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

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

Justice Alexandre de Moraes said that Eduardo Bolsonaro himself admitted having moved to the US in 2025 to lobby the US administration for sanctions against the judges prosecuting his father

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.

The defense rejected the accusations. Public defender Esdras dos Santos Carvalho held that his client had merely exercised a “political interlocution” with the US government, without “any decision-making power over US foreign policy,” and without resorting to violence or serious threats, circumstances required to constitute the offense of coercion. He also raised the alleged bias of Moraes —one of the justices hit by the US sanctions— and deficiencies in the notification of the accused. The judges dismissed those arguments.

Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced in September last year to 27 years and three months in prison for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and is currently serving house arrest. Last year, Washington sanctioned several Supreme Court justices who tried the former president and imposed tariffs on Brazil in connection with that process, which Trump called a “witch hunt.” Eduardo is the brother of Senator and presidential aspirant Flávio Bolsonaro. The First Chamber includes Justices Cristiano Zanin, a former lawyer for Lula, and Flávio Dino, a former minister in his government.