The First Court of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) of Brazil has unanimously sentenced former legislator Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, to a sentence of four years and two months in semi-open prison. The high court finds him guilty of the crime of coercion in the course of a judicial process after considering it proven that he coordinated an international pressure campaign aimed at boycotting the trial against his father for the 2022 coup plot.
The sentence, which also imposes eight years of political ineligibility and the loss of his public position as clerk of the Federal Police, determines that the former parliamentarian used his close network of contacts within Donald Trump’s US administration to destabilize the Brazilian justice system. His father’s friend to the rescue.
According to the accusation of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), validated point by point by the high court, Eduardo Bolsonaro actively operated from the US to force the imposition of economic and diplomatic reprisals against Brazil. Their goal was to force the Judiciary to back down on the prosecution of Jair Bolsonaro, who was finally sentenced last year to 27 years in prison for his participation in the attempted coup d’état.
Among the measures undertaken by the president’s son were the imposition of a strong tariff on Brazilian exports by Washington, the suspension of travel visas for several judges of the high court and the application of specific sanctions of the Magnitsky Law against the investigating minister of the case, Alexandre de Moraes.
In his criminal opinion, however, De Moraes – who acted as rapporteur of the case – does not wrinkle and forcefully rejects the defense strategy. It exposes an “abundant body of evidence” gathered mainly through the accused’s own statements and publications. “With the purpose of benefiting his own father, the criminal activity of the then deputy harmed the entire country. And it did not frighten this court, nor will it ever frighten the Supreme Federal Court,” the magistrate stated bluntly.
Political pulse…
Eduardo Bolsonaro is currently residing on North American soil. Due to his repeated absences from parliamentary sessions in Brasilia, the Chamber of Deputies had already withdrawn his legislative mandate last year.
Now, through a statement issued after learning of the verdict, the radical right politician alleged that he had not been properly notified about the process against him and dismissed the legality of the ruling.
Given that he remains in the US and has a strong alliance with the political ecosystem of the Republican Party and, moreover, with MAGA, legal analysts cited by the BBC point out that it is extremely unlikely that the North American authorities will agree to execute an eventual extradition or detention order so that he can serve his sentence.
For his part, former President Bolsonaro remains serving his prison sentence under house arrest, a measure that his defense lawyers managed to secure due to humanitarian reasons linked to his chronic health problems.
The conviction of his son marks a new milestone in the prolonged process of institutional accountability in Brazil after the convulsive episodes surrounding the transfer of power in the 2022 elections and once again strains the threads of informal diplomacy between the continent’s conservative factions.
Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and his son Flavio at a rally on Copacabana beach, on March 16, 2025, in Rio de Janeiro.
…in an election year
Things become even more tense if we look at the context: in Brazil there are elections this year. And the eldest son of the former ultra president, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (45 years old), is the candidate for the Presidency of Brazil. He will lead the ballots on October 4, 2026 after having been directly appointed by his father and after receiving (there was no other option) the support of the Liberal Party (PL). He will be the main rival of the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 80, who is seeking re-election.
The polls placed them even in a possible second round and even with some advantage for Flávio Bolsonaro. But, as France 24 reports, that was before texts and an audio of the senator were revealed in May to Daniel Vorcaro, a banker accused of a million-dollar fraud, with close relations with power bodies. In the message released by the Intercept Brasil media, the presidential candidate asks the financier for money to Dark Horsea biographical film of Jair, produced in the US and starring actor Jim Caviezel.
For this film, which honors the career of the former president, Vorcaro would have promised 24 million dollars, of which he would have finally paid a little less than half. Flávio, who until then had claimed to have no relationship with Vorcaro, had to admit having asked him for money to make the film, although he denied having done anything illegal. There was “zero public money” involved, he said.
But since then, things have become complicated for Flávio Bolsonaro: new revelations from Intercept Brazil have raised other questions about the operation and the destination of the money received. The candidacy of the former president’s first-born son began to lose steam and was seven points behind Lula in a survey in May. And so things continue: in a poll released on Monday, by the firm Quaest, Lula registered 44% of voting intentions compared to 38% for the presidential candidate of the most conservative right, thus definitively regaining the lead. Another thing is that it lasts for months.
Flávio has had to admit in recent weeks that he met with Vorcaro when he was on probation for the alleged fraud carried out with his Banco Master, liquidated last year for a debt of more than 7,000 million dollars. Even so, his party supports him.
Not so much the street: the Quaest survey adds that 60% of those surveyed stated that the conversations between the senator and Vorcaro raise suspicions of illegal attitudes, in contrast to 19% who considered the dialogue as normal. 65% believed that the former president’s son was wrong and should have avoided that contact, while 17% maintained that he was right to seek financing and that there is nothing wrong with his behavior, reports EFE.
Now it remains to be seen how his brother’s conviction may affect him, whether it will encourage him because of his victimhood or harm him because of the crime committed.
