The former president () will turn 70 in March 2025 and from then on the statute of limitations for the crimes he is accused of will fall by half, if any convictions occur after he exceeds that age.
under the accusation of participating in the plot of a coup d’état, two other main suspects are already over 70 years old and will also benefit in the same hypothesis: the former minister of the GSI (Institutional Security Office) Augusto Heleno and the president of the PL , .
For the Federal Police, of an attempted coup d’état, an attempt to abolish the democratic rule of law and a criminal organization.
The statute of limitations expires when the legal deadline for the accused to be eventually prosecuted and punished by the Judiciary has passed.
According to lawyer and professor of criminal law at Insper Tatiana Stoco, the reduction in half of the statute of limitations for those over 70 years old is effective once the penalties are set in a sentence.
The calculation of the prescription at this procedural point is carried out based on a table set out in article 109 of the Penal Code.
As an example, if an intermediate sentence of six years is imposed on Bolsonaro for the crime of attempting to abolish the democratic rule of law (the punishment ranges from four to eight years of imprisonment), the statute of limitations, without considering age, would be 12 years old.
However, if this eventual conviction occurs after he turns 70, the period drops to six years.
According to criminal law, the next step would be to verify that this six-year period was not extrapolated between two temporal boundaries: the date of receipt of the criminal complaint by the Court and the date of publication of the conviction.
In this case, if the interval is longer than six years, the prescription is consumed and the convict is free from the imposition of the sentence.
Regarding the place where sentences are served, the legislation in general does not provide for differentiations for elderly convicts, according to lawyer and counselor at Iasp (São Paulo Lawyers Institute) Maria Elizabeth Queijo.
However, the Judiciary can ease the regime of those sentenced in cases of health risks.
“If he [condenado] has duly documented health problems, the subject of a medical report certifying that his stay in the prison environment may pose a health risk, in which case there may be a conversion to house arrest”, says the lawyer.
Tatiana Badaró, lawyer and professor at the Center for Studies in Law and Business (Cedin), in Belo Horizonte, also states that there are no general rules regarding elderly people who must serve prison sentences, but the Judiciary can benefit sentenced people with poor health.
“Advanced age and health conditions may justify replacing prison with other precautionary measures, such as house arrest and electronic monitoring.”
If you are prosecuted and convicted by , an attempt to abolish the democratic rule of law and a criminal organization, you could be ineligible for more than 30 years.
on suspicion of these crimes on Thursday (21).
The former president has already been convicted by the (Superior Electoral Court) for attacks and lies about the electoral system and is the target of different other investigations at the (Supreme Federal Court). At this moment, he cannot contest elections until at least 2030.
The maximum penalty for the crime of attempted coup d’état is 12 years in prison, for attempting to abolish the rule of law is 8 years and for criminal organization is 8 years. In other words, the sum amounts to 28 years in prison.
This total does not take into account possible requests for an increase in the sentence due to aggravating circumstances and a combination of criminal conduct identified by the PF.
According to Fernando Neisser, lawyer and professor of electoral law at FGV (Fundação Getúlio Vargas) in São Paulo, after serving the sentence, there are still eight years of ineligibility due to the application of punishment provided for in the Clean Record Law.
Today Bolsonaro is 69 years old. In the event of being definitively convicted in this case and under these conditions in 2025, for example, he would be ineligible until 2061, when he would be 106 years old.
