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Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has vetoed a bill that would dramatically reduce the prison sentence of the country’s far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted last year of plotting a coup.
Lula vetoed the bill, which was passed by congress in December, on the third anniversary of riots by Bolsonaro supporters in the capital, Brasília, over his defeat by Lula in the 2022 general election.
In scenes reminiscent of the 2021 US Capitol riots, thousands of demonstrators ransacked government buildings in Brasília on 8 January 2023, a week after Lula’s inauguration for a third term, and called on Brazil’s military to overthrow him.
“January 8th is etched in our history as the day of our democracy’s victory,” Lula said on Thursday at the presidential palace, which was one of the buildings targeted by rioters.
He added that it was a “victory over those who tried to seize power by force, disregarding the will expressed at the ballot box”.
Bolsonaro, 70, was sent to prison in November after being convicted of trying to cling on to power in a landmark coup trial seen as a test of Brazilian democracy. He denied the charges.
The former president and his supporters, including Donald Trump, have argued that he is the victim of a leftwing “witch-hunt”.
In December, his allies in Brazil’s conservative-dominated congress pushed through a bill to reduce his prison sentence from 27 years to a little over two.
Lula had made no secret of his plan to strike down the bill. However, Brazil’s congress has the last word and could reject the president’s veto.
Bolsonaro was convicted over a scheme to stop Lula from taking office after the former president’s razor-thin loss in the 2022 election that highlighted Brazil’s stark political divisions.
The plot allegedly involved a plan to assassinate Lula, his vice-president, Geraldo Alckmin, and the supreme court judge Alexandre de Moraes.
Prosecutors said the scheme failed because of a lack of support from the military’s leadership.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers have appealed, in vain, for him to be allowed to serve his sentence under house arrest, on health grounds.
He has suffered serious health complications related to a stabbing on the campaign trial in 2018, and spent a week in hospital in December after surgery for a groin hernia and treatment for recurring hiccups.
On Wednesday, he returned to hospital for check-ups after a fall in prison. Doctors gave him a clean bill of health.
Under the current rules, he is expected to serve at least eight years in jail.
The bill passed by congress also aims to benefit others convicted over the coup plot, as well as more than 100 people who were imprisoned for their role in the January 2023 riots.
