BRAZILIA. – The Brazilian Senate approved this Wednesday a reduction in the 27-year prison sentence that former President Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to last September. The text, which was surprisingly approved by MPs last week, now ends up on the president’s desk Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has the power to proclaim or reject it.
The measure was approved 48 yes votes, 25 no votes.
The far-right Bolsonaro, 70, was convicted in September of trying to prevent Lula’s inauguration in 2022. He was sent to prison at the end of November and the actual length of his imprisonment was estimated to be around eight years under current regulations. But the initiative reduces it to about two years and four months by changing the prison sentence for several crimes, including coup d’etat.
In fact, in a Congress with a conservative majority, the Bolsonarist bank has insisted on granting an amnesty to the biggest leader of the right and the far right in Brazil.
As the year-end holidays approached, the former president’s allies accepted the reduction in sentences as “a first step” toward complete forgiveness.
The author of the bill, MP Paulinho da Força, defended the reduction in penalties as “A gesture of reconciliation” in a polarized country.
The members of the Senate’s Constitutional and Justice Commission approved the text with 17 yes votes and seven no votes.
The adoption of the initiative by the House of Commons YesIt sparked demonstrations in several cities across the country on Sunday.called by the left under the slogans “No amnesty” and “Congress, enemy of the people”.
“You have to pay”
If Lula decides to do so, the initiative also provides for conditional release More than a hundred Bolsonaro supporters were detained for the January 8, 2023 uprising against the state headquarters in Brasiliaa week after Lula’s inauguration.
“At least we managed to get these people out of prison, which is the most important thing at this moment,” said Senator Sergio Moro, Bolsonaro’s former justice minister.
In September, parliament stopped a project to amnesty Bolsonaro and his supporters after massive protests.
President Lula said that Bolsonaro “must pay his penalty” and it was unclear whether he would now veto the law.
“This project faces a veto,” said Senator Randolfe Rodrigues of the left-wing president’s Workers’ Party.
However, Parliament can vote again to override the veto.
Since the end of November, Bolsonaro has been serving his sentence in a small room in a police station in Brasilia.
He was transferred there early He tried to burn the electronic anklet that controlled his preventive house arrest.
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