BRASÍLIA, Brazil — Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, widely known in Brazil as “Xandão” or “Big Alex,” led a five-member panel that found former President Jair Bolsonaro guilty of orchestrating an attempted coup and sentenced him to 27 years and three months in prison, a landmark ruling that has already put several of Bolsonaro’s closest allies behind bars.
The decision, handed down after a high-profile trial that followed the Jan. 8, 2023, attacks on government buildings in Brasilia, came with a single dissent from Justice Luiz Fux. The panel also ruled against seven close Bolsonaro allies, including senior military figures, concluding a case prosecutors said was instigated by the former president and his inner circle.
De Moraes, 56, who has served on the Supreme Federal Court since his 2017 appointment by then-President Michel Temer, has been central to several high-stakes legal efforts that critics say are politically charged and supporters defend as essential to protecting Brazil’s democracy. He has taken on politicians, business leaders and social media platforms in a series of probes that targeted disinformation networks and coordinated attacks on institutions.
U.S. measures and international fallout amplified the case’s global profile. The U.S. administration this year imposed a 50% tariff increase on some Brazilian exports and imposed sanctions on de Moraes, citing concerns about suppression of freedom of expression tied to the Bolsonaro proceedings. The moves were supported politically by Bolsonaro’s allies in the United States and drew condemnation from others who view the court’s rulings as a defense of constitutional order.
De Moraes has been a polarizing figure domestically. Supporters praise his efforts to stem disinformation and bolster electoral integrity after he served as president of the Superior Electoral Court, a post that placed him at the center of the 2022 election’s legal defenses. His tenure as rapporteur on a “fake news” investigation and his prior role as São Paulo’s public security secretary in 2015–2016 informed many of his actions on the bench, including orders that led to arrests, social media account blocks and legal actions against business figures.
Critics, including several Bolsonaro allies, accuse de Moraes of overreach. Elon Musk publicly denounced him last year during a dispute over the social media platform X, calling de Moraes an "evil dictator cosplaying as a judge" after the justice threatened to suspend X’s operations in Brazil amid disagreements over content moderation. The standoff ultimately ended with X complying with court orders, naming a local legal representative, blocking accounts and paying fines.
Reactions within Brazil ranged from praise to vilification. Some legal figures and politicians, including former Justice Minister José Eduardo Cardozo, defended de Moraes, saying his conduct reflected a rigorous defense of constitutional law. Others who once praised him, such as evangelical leader-turned-senator Damares Alves, said they had changed their view as the cases unfolded. Several Supreme Court colleagues, including long-serving Justice Gilmar Mendes and Chief Justice Luís Roberto Barroso, visited the trial panel at the close of proceedings to signal institutional support for the work that led to the conviction.
Observers note that Brazil’s modern history includes multiple attempted coups and a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. Historians tally roughly 14 attempted coups over 136 years of republican history, but legal accountability for political leaders implicated in a coup attempt is unprecedented in Brazil’s recent democratic era. The convictions following the 2023 Brasilia attacks are the first in which top political instigators and supporters have received prison sentences in connection with an attempted overthrow.
De Moraes’s personal profile has also been a subject of public fascination. Married with three children, he is known for a bald head and a penchant for soccer metaphors in his public remarks. He has been the target of social media mockery over past video clips, but following the trial many on the left portrayed him as a hero, while right-wing supporters depicted him as a zealot. Memes and charged commentary have multiplied across the political spectrum.
During the trial’s opening week de Moraes said, "History teaches us that impunity, omission and cowardice are not options for pacification, because the apparently easier path, and only apparently, is that of impunity, omission, leaving traumatic scars in our society and corrodes our democracy." The comment reflected the court’s broader rationale for pursuing charges tied to coordination of violent attacks and threats to institutional order.
Legal analysts noted that the trial consolidated a line of investigations that began with the electoral court’s 2022 efforts to prevent misinformation and protect vote integrity and expanded into criminal probes of those who allegedly organized and encouraged the Brasilia violence. Some defendants were initially jailed and later released during pretrial stages, a sequence that former President Temer and others pointed to when describing de Moraes as measured rather than radical.
Celso Vilardi, one of Bolsonaro’s attorneys, dismissed parts of the verdict as a technical vote and said he felt vindicated by dissenting opinions, even as he criticized the broader handling of the case. Others within Brazil’s political and legal establishment hailed the ruling as an affirmation of judicial authority in the face of anti-democratic mobilization.
As the sentence takes effect, Brazil faces a politically fraught period in which legal rulings intersect with diplomatic tensions and domestic divisions. De Moraes’s role in steering the trial will likely continue to define debates over judicial power and the rule of law in a country that has grappled with coups, dictatorship and contentious democratic transitions over the past century.
Eléonore Hughes contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro.