Brazil Congress overturns Lula veto on bill cutting Bolsonaro coup sentence

SAO PAULO - Brazil's Congress on Thursday overturned President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's veto on a bill sharply reducing former President Jair Bolsonaro's 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election, further weakening the leftist leader's hand in Congress.

The move marked the second major defeat handed by lawmakers to Lula this week, after Brazil's Senate on Wednesday rejected his nomination of Solicitor General Jorge Messias for a Supreme Court seat, making him the first leader in more than a century to have a top court appointee rejected by Congress.

The bill, approved in December, cut Bolsonaro's prison term to just over two years and reduced sentences for those convicted over their roles in a January 2023 riot, when Bolsonaro supporters invaded and ransacked the presidential palace, Supreme Court and Congress.

Lula vetoed the bill in January, arguing that there was strong evidence to support the conviction of Bolsonaro and other coup plotters.

Bolsonaro, 71, began serving his sentence in November. He was initially jailed but is currently under what authorities described as "humanitarian house arrest" due to health concerns.

The former president, who has gone through several surgeries since he was stabbed in the abdomen during a campaign event in 2018, spent weeks in a hospital in March due to an acute form of pneumonia.

(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo, Editing by Natalia Siniawski)

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 12:03 PM.