Overview
- If enacted, the legislation would reduce Jair Bolsonaro’s 27-year prison term to about two years and four months by altering penalties for several offenses, including coup-related crimes.
- The bill would also grant conditional release to more than a hundred people jailed for the January 8, 2023 attacks on government buildings in Brasília.
- Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has said Bolsonaro “has to pay” his sentence, and any presidential veto could be put to a congressional override vote.
- Backers cast the proposal as a reconciliation effort, while left-wing groups organized street protests opposing leniency for those convicted in the plot and the Brasília assaults.
- In a separate development this week, Brazil’s Supreme Court concluded a major trial in the conspiracy case, identifying Bolsonaro as the principal organizer and issuing additional multi-year sentences.