The Brazilian Congress passed this Wednesday (December 17, 2025) a law that allows a reduction in the 27-year prison sentence for former right-wing extremist President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been in prison since last month for an attempted coup.
The text, supported by the conservative majority in Congress, could reduce the former president’s prison sentence to two years and four months.
The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has the power to veto the initiative.
The project received the support of 48 senators and 25 opposed it after the text was approved by the House of Commons last week.
The initiative benefits the greatest leader of the Brazilian right and far right, 70, who was convicted in September of trying to prevent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from coming to power in 2022.
But it can also grant a conditional release to more than a hundred Bolsonaro supporters who were imprisoned because of the January 8, 2023 riots in Brasilia, a week after Lula’s inauguration.
The bill surprisingly passed both chambers within a week, a victory for the conservative majority in Congress before the Christmas recess.
The project sparked protests
The bill’s author, MP Paulinho da Força, defended the reduction in sentences as “a gesture of reconciliation” in a polarized country.
Taking current regulations into account, the judiciary estimates the effective length of Bolsonaro’s prison at around eight years.
The new law could reduce the sentence to about two years and four months by changing the sentence for several crimes, including coup.
“At least we managed to get these people out of prison (from the riots), which is the most important thing at this moment,” congratulated Senator Sergio Moro, Bolsonaro’s former justice minister.
His camp initially tried to enforce a total amnesty. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets on Sunday to protest against the adoption of the text, which left-wing circles had also called for.
mg (afp, efe)
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