Brazil’s congress shortens Bolsonaro’s sentence in defeat for Lula

Former President Jair Bolsonaro, when he was temporarily allowed out of house arrest for medical treatment, departs a hospital in Brasilia, Brazil, Sept. 14, 2025. Photo by Eraldo Peres /AP

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Brazilian lawmakers voted to override President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s veto of a bill to reduce Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence, dealing another major blow to the leftist leader ahead of his reelection bid this year.

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Majorities in both the lower house and Senate voted to overturn the veto on Thursday, approving legislation that will curb the amount of time Bolsonaro and others will serve for plotting a coup attempt after the right-wing former president’s 2022 election loss.

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The votes followed a historic setback for Lula on Wednesday, when the Senate rejected his nominee to a vacant Supreme Court seat — the first time lawmakers had refused to approve a president’s pick to join the court since 1894.

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Like that move, the veto override also demonstrated the power of Bolsonaro allies in Brazil’s conservative legislature, a body that has posed problems for the leftist Lula since he returned to the presidency in 2023.

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Both came at the outset of an election season in which Lula is set to face a major challenge from Flavio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of the former president.

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The 45-year-old senator was among the leaders of the push to block Attorney General Jorge Messias from joining the Supreme Court, a body he and other conservatives have accused of overreach and political persecution as it has prosecuted participants in the riots that followed Jair Bolsonaro’s electoral defeat.

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Flavio, who is tied with Lula in early polls, has pledged to free his father and seek the impeachment of prominent Supreme Court members like Justice Alexandre de Moraes should he win the October election.

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The elder Bolsonaro was convicted in September of plotting a coup attempt. These charges stemmed from an investigation into the events of Jan. 8, 2023, when thousands of his supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia in an effort to overturn his narrow loss to Lula.

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Congress initially approved the bill to shorten his 27-year sentence in December, weeks after he was imprisoned. It gained traction after Flavio Bolsonaro announced his plans to run for president with his father’s blessing.

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Lula vetoed the legislation in January, during a ceremony marking the third anniversary of the Brasilia riots.

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The bill will reduce Bolsonaro’s sentence to 20 years and nine months, and caps the time he would spend behind bars in a so-called “closed regime” to two years and four months — down from the six to eight years he currently faces, according to calculations from the lower house.

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The former president is currently on house arrest, after Moraes ruled in April that he could spend 90 days at home to recover from ongoing health problems. His lawyers have sought permanent transfer to house arrest, a request Moraes previously rejected but said he would review after the current period ends.