Brasilia, Nov 6 (EFE).- Brazil's Supreme Court First Panel will this Friday begin analyzing the appeal filed by the defense of former President Jair Bolsonaro, which represents the far-right leader's last effort to avoid or reduce a 27-year prison sentence for sedition.
The appeal, known as an "embargo de declaration," and which is considered by legal experts to have little chance of success, will be the subject of a virtual judgment in the computer system, in which the five members of the First Panel will publish their votes. They have until November 14, and once that deadline is met, the result must be proclaimed and the process will conclude, as there will be no room for further appeals.
Even so, it is possible that one of the justices will request that the matter be discussed in person, which would require the full court to be convened and could postpone the decision. If the sentence handed down on September 11 is confirmed, the court will have to decide on the place of incarceration, which is presumed to be the Papuda Penitentiary Complex in Brasilia, where, according to official sources, a special cell with certain comforts is already prepared due to his status as a former president.
In that case, Bolsonaro would be transferred to the prison from his home in the capital, where he has been under house arrest since August 4, on suspicion of a "risk of flight" and for violating precautionary measures issued by the court in the context of the process.
The Final Appeal The "embargo de declaration" filed by his defense insists on his innocence, requests the annulment of the process, or, as a last resort, a reduction of the 27-year and 3-month sentence already handed down. Bolsonaro was convicted after being found guilty of plotting a conspiracy to prevent the inauguration of the current president, the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who defeated him in the October 2022 elections.
This conspiracy against the election results, which Bolsonaro never recognized, led to the storming of the seats of the three branches of state power on January 8, 2023, when thousands of far-right activists tried to convince the Armed Forces to overthrow Lula, who had taken office a week earlier.
Bolsonaro's lawyers have insisted that during the process their right to a defense was "curtailed," that they did not have enough time to analyze the vast documentation collected against their client, and that the Supreme Court would not have jurisdiction to try this case. All arguments presented during the previous stages and which have already been rejected by the court.
Fragile Health and House Arrest as a Last Hope The lawyers of the far-right leader have already indicated that, if the appeal is rejected, they will request that the house arrest regime be maintained, due to the fact that Bolsonaro, 70, has serious health problems. These include sequelae from a stab wound inflicted by a mentally ill person in the abdominal region in September 2018, during the campaign that brought him to power, and others that have arisen in recent times, such as an incipient skin cancer.
But if it comes to that, in principle the decision will be made after Bolsonaro enters prison, which would not prevent his transfer to a penitentiary, where he would have to spend at least a few days. The possibility of him being imprisoned in Papuda is so high that the Brasilia regional government, which administers the prison, has asked the Supreme Court to send a medical team to examine the former president and determine if he is really fit to remain in the penitentiary.
Along with the appeal filed by Bolsonaro, the First Panel will also decide on the final appeals presented by seven other convicts, among whom are former ministers and former military chiefs who, according to the court, participated in the sedition plot.
Photo EFE The article "The Supreme Court begins to analyze Bolsonaro's final recourse to avoid prison" was first published in La Verdad Panamá.
