Bolsonaro’s Defense Seeks to Nullify Trial Over Alleged Coup Attempt

(AFP) Jair Bolsonaro's defense filed a new appeal Friday seeking the "nullity" of the coup trial that sentenced him to 27 years in prison, three days after the supreme court ordered the former Brazilian president to begin serving the sentence.

The lawyers ask for "the nullity of the criminal process" and that "Bolsonaro be acquitted" in a document to which AFP had access.

The 70-year-old former president is serving his sentence in police custody in Brasilia.

On Tuesday, the supreme court "signed off" on the sentence, a decision made by Judge Alexandre de Moraes and endorsed by the rest of the supreme's first chamber.

The lawyers protested Moraes' decision and anticipated that they would appeal. It is the second appeal attempted by the defense, after a first that was rejected.

The far-right leader is being held in a small room with a minibar, air conditioning, and a television set at the Federal Police headquarters in the Brazilian capital.

He had been under house arrest since August, but last Saturday was transferred to pretrial detention for "flight risk" after damaging his monitoring anklet with a soldering iron.

His lawyers deny that he tried to escape and have requested house arrest for the former president, afflicted by health problems stemming from a stab wound he received in 2018 during an election rally.

The former president's defense argued that the incident was due to a state of "mental confusion" induced by medication, an explanation rejected by the high court.

The supreme court found Bolsonaro guilty of leading a criminal organization to invalidate the 2022 elections and prevent the inauguration of the president, leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The plan even contemplated assassinating Lula, but was not consummated due to lack of support among the military high command.

Lula considered on Wednesday that Brazil gave a "lesson in democracy" with the historic trial, the first to convict those responsible for a coup plot in Brazil.

Bolsonaro is the fourth former Brazilian president jailed since the end of the dictatorship in 1985. They include Lula (2003-2010, 2023-present) and Fernando Collor de Mello (1990-1992), both for corruption cases.