A PANEL of Brazilian Supreme Court justices on Thursday sentenced the country’s far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison.

The court convicted him of attempting a coup to remain in office despite his 2022 electoral defeat.

Mr Bolsonaro, who has always denied any wrongdoing, can try to appeal the ruling. He is currently under house arrest in Brasilia.

Four of the five justices on the panel found Mr Bolsonaro guilty on five counts, in a ruling that will deepen political divisions and was expected to prompt a backlash from the United States government.

It makes Mr Bolsonaro the first former Brazilian president to be convicted of attempting a coup.

The five counts are: attempting a coup after losing the 2022 race to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a plot that prosecutors alleged included plans to kill Lula, participating in an armed criminal organisation, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, damage qualified by violence and deterioration of listed heritage.

Mr Bolsonaro’s co-conspirators, all of them former Brazilian officials, were also sentenced for their roles in the attempted coup.

General Braga Netto, Mr Bolsonaro’s former defence minister and running mate in 2022, received 26 years.

Admiral Almir Garnier got 24 years. General Augusto Heleno received 21 years and General Paulo Sergio Nogueira got 19 years.

Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, who co-operated with investigations, was given two years under an open regime.

Chief Justice Luis Roberto Barroso joined the panel at the end of the session and called the trial a “watershed moment in Brazil’s history.”

Speaking to reporters as he left the White House, US President Donald Trump said he was “very unhappy” with the conviction and described Mr Bolsonaro as “outstanding.”

And later, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US “will respond accordingly to this witch-hunt.”

The Trump administration had already applied a 50 per cent tariff on imported Brazilian goods, which it said was in reaction to the process against Mr Bolsonaro.

The sentence doesn’t mean Mr Bolsonaro will immediately go to prison. His lawyers have said that they will try to appeal both the conviction and sentence.

Mr Bolsonaro had been previously banned from running for office until 2030 in a separate case.

The ruling may push Mr Bolsonaro’s supporters to seek some amnesty for him through Congress.

But Lindbergh Farias, the Workers’ Party leader in the lower house, said the trial “should bury the discussion about amnesty in Congress.”