00:00Next to Brazil, where the Supreme Court has ordered Jair Bolsonaro to begin a prison sentence of more than 27 years
00:07for plotting a coup attempt after losing presidential elections in 2022.
00:12Judges say all appeal avenues have now been exhausted and the former far-right leader's guilty verdict has become final.
00:19He has spent more than 100 days under house arrest in a separate case over allegations that he'd asked ally Donald Trump
00:26to disrupt proceedings against him and over the weekend denied that he'd been trying to escape by removing an ankle monitor.
00:35Well, for more on all of this, let's bring in France 24's Jan Onosko.
00:40Jan, good to have you with us.
00:42Firstly, is this the end of the road for Jair Bolsonaro?
00:46It appears that all of his appeals have now finally been exhausted.
00:51Absolutely. According to the Supreme Court, as you say, all his appeals, possible appeals, have now been exhausted.
01:01And he finally begins this sentence of 27 years and three months in prison for trying to stage a coup d'etat
01:10and overthrow democracy here in Brazil after he lost that presidential election to the current president, Lula, back in 2022.
01:22Now, the Supreme Court justice in charge of his case, Alexandre de Moraes,
01:26delivered the final judgment after Bolsonaro's team failed to successfully appeal against the sentence.
01:31And Moraes also rejected the defense's request for that sentence to be served at home,
01:36which they had argued for on the grounds of Bolsonaro's ill health.
01:40But as you said, it's not surprising that that request was rejected because of Bolsonaro trying to break open his electronic ankle tag with a soldering iron
01:52and that leading to him being taken into custody over the weekend.
01:57He was fitted with that tag, as you say, back in July.
02:00That's when the federal police believe that he may be trying to flee the country or to ask for asylum at a foreign country's embassy.
02:09The embassy district in Brasilia is just a few miles away from his home.
02:13And so all that means that as of now, he is starting this sentence in a 12 metre square prison cell in a police station in Brasilia.
02:24And that's where he's going to remain for now.
02:25And Jan, has there been much of a response from his legal team, from his lawyers?
02:30Yes, absolutely.
02:34Bolsonaro's defense team have said that they will submit a motion of dissolution, which is allowed in certain cases.
02:41But in the case of Bolsonaro, it doesn't actually apply because for that to have taken place or to be allowed,
02:48he would have needed two votes to absolve him.
02:51He received only one.
02:52So it's unlikely that that motion by his defense team is going to succeed.
02:57Are there any other ways that he may be freed?
03:00Absolutely.
03:02If he if there's certainly a movement to pass a bill into law granting unrestricted amnesty to all those people involved in the January the 8th riots.
03:14It's something that Bolsonaro's senator son, Carlos, has been fighting for and talking about after he visited his dad in prison.
03:21But that's going to depend a lot on just how much political capital Bolsonaro still has.
03:26And at the moment, his political capital is diminishing fast.
03:30In fact, polls show that only 36 percent of voters would be in favor of Bolsonaro being given amnesty.
03:36The most likely chance he would have is if one of his political allies wins next year's presidential elections.
03:44One of those who's likely to stand is the current governor of Sao Paulo.
03:49That's TarcĂsio de Freitas.
03:50A few months ago, he said that the first thing he would do if he was elected as president would be to pardon Jair Bolsonaro.
03:58Recently, he has reiterated his support for him, saying he stands beside him and that he's innocent.
04:04But a year is a long time in politics, as we know.
04:07And so even though that's a possibility, it's really not a big one.
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