Brazil’s ex-president Jair Bolsonaro on Friday filed a new appeal asking the Supreme Court to overturn his conviction for coup plotting and annul his 27-year prison sentence.
The 71-year-old far-right leader was found guilty by a Supreme Court panel last year of conspiring to hold onto power following his 2022 election loss to current president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
In a court filing seen by AFP, Bolsonaro’s lawyers asked Supreme Court president Edson Fachin to ‘nullify’ the previous trial, arguing that the full bench of justices should have heard his case, among other procedural complaints.
Fachin was not on the five-member panel that tried and sentenced Bolsonaro.
Several previous appeals by Bolsonaro have been rejected by the justice overseeing his case, Alexandre de Moraes.
The request on Friday comes shortly after Brazil’s Congress passed a law which could see Bolsonaro’s sentence drastically shortened to just over two years, though the new court filing appeared unrelated.
The conservative-majority legislature enacted the law by an overwhelming vote to overturn a veto from leftist Lula.
Bolsonaro has consistently denied all the charges against him.
He and his supporters, including US president Donald Trump, have argued he is the victim of a left-wing judicial ‘witch hunt.’
Last month, Bolsonaro was moved to house arrest to recuperate after being hospitalised with bronchopneumonia.
