What did Jair Bolsonaro’s trial reveal about an attempted coup in Brazil?

Far-right ex-president was found to have led a ‘criminal organisation’ to try to stay in power

Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro, has been jailed for 27 years. File picture: Eraldo Peres/AP

Brazil’s supreme court has made Jair Bolsonaro the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted for attempting a coup.

The 70-year-old far-right leader claims he is the victim of political persecution, but three out of five judges concluded on Thursday that it was sufficiently proven that Bolsonaro and his close allies attempted to overturn the 2022 election, which he lost to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.