2 Bolsonaro supporters sentenced to up to 9 years in prison for bombing attempt
Brasilia, May 11 (EFE).- A court in Brazil on Thursday handed prison sentences of between 5 and 9 years to two supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro for participating in a bombing attempt near the Brasilia International Airport on Dec. 24.
Judge Osvaldo Tovani sentenced George Washington de Oliveira to nine years and four months in prison and Alan Diego dos Santos to five years and four months.
Both are supporters of former president and Brazilian far-right leader, Jair Bolsonaro, and have been detained since shortly after the incident.
According to the ruling, the men met at the camp that Bolsonaro supporters set up outside the army headquarters in Brasilia following the victory of progressive Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in October’s presidential elections.
The pro-Bolsonaro demonstrators demanded a military “intervention” to oust Lula and keep Bolsonaro in power.
The investigations showed that De Oliveira ordered the explosive material, which came from the northern Pará state, and assembled the device using online instructions.
He then handed the device to Dos Santos, who placed it inside a fuel tanker truck on the access road to the airport.
The device did not explode due to a defect in its assembly and was deactivated by the police on the morning of Dec. 24, eight days before Lula’s inauguration.
In his statement, De Oliveira confessed that they planned to place explosives in at least two areas of the Brazilian capital in order to cause “chaos” and “provoke the intervention of the armed forces,” thus preventing Lula from assuming power.
In the sentence, which can be appealed, the judge ordered that the two men remain in preventive detention due to “the need to preserve public order.”
The police have identified a third person involved in the plot, Wellington Macedo, who has been on the run since the incident and whose case is being processed separately.
On Jan. 8, a week after Lula was sworn-in, Bolsonaro supporters stormed the country’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace. EFE
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