Brasilia, Brazil: Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been convicted by a Supreme Court majority of plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election, a powerful blow to the populist far-right movement he created.

The ruling by four of five justices in the Supreme Court makes Bolsonaro the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted for attacking democracy.

Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. Credit: AP

“This criminal case is almost a meeting between Brazil and its past, its present, and its future,” Justice Carmen Lucia said before she voted to convict Bolsonaro of attempting a coup, a reference to previous attempts, successful and otherwise, to overthrow democracy in the country’s history.

There was ample evidence, she added,

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