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The Supreme Court of Brazil on Tuesday handed former lawmaker and son of former President Bolsonaro, Eduardo Bolsonaro, a prison sentence of four years and two months after finding him guilty of coercion and unlawfully soliciting U.S. government interference in his father’s coup-related trial.
The unanimous ruling, handed down by a panel of justices, automatically strips the younger Bolsonaro of his political rights, disqualifying him from running for public office for eight years.
The conviction stems from an analysis of evidence and self-incriminating statements made by Eduardo Bolsonaro in videos and interviews.
The court found that he traveled to the United States in early 2025 specifically to lobby the Trump administration to levy economic tariffs on Brazil and slap punitive sanctions on the very judges investigating his father.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who presided over the case, delivered a rebuke during the hearing regarding the limits of legislative duties.
"A federal lawmaker's job is not to lobby overseas against his own country," Moraes stated, emphasizing that the defendant's international campaign sought to obstruct justice and interfere in ongoing domestic judicial proceedings unlawfully.
Last year, the Trump administration briefly imposed aggressive coercive measures and increased tariffs on Brazil in response to the prosecution of the Bolsonaro family. The penalties, however, were later rolled back.
Justice Moraes and his wife were among those targeted by U.S. sanctions last July.
Bolsonaro has been living in the U.S. since February 2025 and was not present in the Brasilia courtroom to hear the verdict.
Under the Brazilian sentencing system, his prison term would be served in a semi-open facility (a correctional regime that allows an inmate to work outside during the day but requires them to return to a facility or designated home at night).
In addition to jail time, the court ordered him to pay a fine of 100 minimum wages, totaling roughly 162,100 reais ($31,700).
His father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, is currently under house arrest serving a 27-year sentence. The conviction stems from his attempt to orchestrate a coup d'etat (a sudden, illegal deposition of a government, usually by a faction within the state) after losing the 2022 election to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Responding through a written statement, Eduardo Bolsonaro claimed he was not properly notified of the legal proceedings and alleged the trial was a partisan ploy designed solely to block him from participating in Brazilian politics.
His defense team maintained that his diplomatic outreach in Washington did not constitute unlawful coercion or pose a real institutional threat.
The former congressman now risks immediate arrest if he returns to Brazil. He remains in the United States, from where he has been actively campaigning for his brother Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, who is expected to challenge Lula in October’s presidential election.
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