Lawyers for Brazil’s Bolsonaro ask court to annul coup conviction

Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro stands at the entrance of his home where he is under house arrest in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis Nova)

Lawyers for ex-Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro filed a new appeal Friday requesting the annulment of his coup-plotting trial, which saw him sentenced to 27 years in prison.

The defence is requesting “the annulment of the criminal process” and that Bolsonaro be acquitted, according to a document seen by AFP, three days after the Supreme Court ordered Bolsonaro to begin serving his prison term.

The brash former army captain who fired up Brazil’s right and reshaped the country’s politics is ending a divisive career jailed at a police headquarters in Brasilia.

Bolsonaro, 70, was convicted in September over a scheme to stop Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office as president after winning the 2022 elections. The plan included a plot to kill the veteran leftist.

Prosecutors said the scheme failed only due to a lack of support from military top brass.

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal to his sentence earlier this month, and on Tuesday ruled the judgment was final.

Bolsonaro, who was president from 2019 to 2022, maintains that he is innocent and a victim of political persecution.

He has won support from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has slammed a “witch hunt” of his ally and imposed sanctions and punitive tariffs on Brazil. Many of the tariffs have since been rolled back.

Bolsonaro is Brazil’s fourth former president to be imprisoned since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985.