Eduardo Bolsonaro Sentenced to Four Years in Prison

Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's Supreme Court has sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro's son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, to four years and two months in prison. He was found guilty of pressuring the US administration to garner support for his father's legal battles and was given this sentence. The 41-year-old Eduardo was accused last year of lobbying US officials to help Brazil by imposing additional customs duties (tariffs) or sanctions on Brazil.

Eduardo, a former Brazilian congressman, moved to the US in 2025. His father, Jair Bolsonaro, was found guilty of planning a military coup and sentenced to 27 years in prison. Bolsonaro was President of Brazil from January 2019 to December 2022. Responding via social media on Tuesday, Eduardo said the verdict against him was baseless and meaningless. He also accused the judges of wanting to prevent him from running in elections in the future.

He claimed that he was not formally informed about the case and only found out through the media, stating that the legal process was not followed. Eduardo had previously stated that he was living in exile in the US due to fear of arrest if he returned to Brazil. He had publicly sought support from the administration of US President Donald Trump on behalf of his father. The Trump administration called the case against Bolsonaro a political vendetta, or witch hunt.

Trump, considering the right-wing leader Bolsonaro as his political ally, imposed a 50 percent import duty on Brazil last July. Current Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called the decision not only wrong but also impractical. Subsequently, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that Washington would respond to Bolsonaro's sentence. The US administration had previously also imposed sanctions on Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court judge who handles cases related to Bolsonaro. However, the US later agreed to lift the sanctions.

Although Lula said Brazil was ready to negotiate with the US on trade issues, he called the sanctions imposed on the judge an unacceptable interference in his country's judicial system. Trump and Bolsonaro had a close relationship during Trump's first term. Both leaders met at the White House in 2019. However, both later lost the presidential elections and neither publicly accepted their defeat. Jair Bolsonaro was found guilty of conspiring to overturn the 2022 election results.