In a very raucous session held in the early hours of this morning, Dec. 10, which included a fist fight and expelling all journalists from the room, Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, the, voted up a controversial bill to reduce the 27-year prison sentence of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Both houses of Congress are dominated by Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party.
Convicted by the Supreme Court of attempting a coup against elected President Inácio Lula da Silva on Jan. 8, 2023, including plotting Lula’s assassination, Bolsonaro just began serving his lengthy sentence in November. But his backers and lawyers insist that because of his health problems he should serve his sentence under house arrest. His lawyers recently requested he be released from jail to undergo surgery, but it was denied.
According to Brasil 247, the bill states that when the crime of attempting to abolish the democratic state occurs simultaneously with an attempted coup, as occurred in the Jan. 8, 2023 coup attempt against Lula da Silva in Brasilia, only the most serious sentence should be applied (in this case for the coup attempt), not both served concurrently.
This would significantly reduce the sentences of many of those, including Bolsonaro, convicted of involvement in the Jan. 8, 2023 coup attempt. The bill now goes to the Senate, and if passed, would reduce Bolsonaro’s sentence to about two and a half years, and grant parole to about 100 of his collaborators, including many former top-level military and intelligence officials convicted for the events of Jan. 8, 2023. The President, however, does have the power of veto over bills.
Members of Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT) were reportedly surprised by the bill’s proposal, since on the evening of Dec. 8 the president of the Chamber of Deputies Hugo Motta had met with Finance Minister Fernando Haddad and Institutional Affairs Minister Gleisi Hoffman, and never even mentioned the bill.
