The Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF, Brazil's Supreme Court) has convicted former federal congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro of defamation against congresswoman Tabata Amaral (PSB-SP), sentencing him to one year of detention under an open regime and a fine of 80,000 reais (about US$ 15,000). Criminal Action 1,053 closed in the court's virtual plenary on Saturday (26) by 7 votes to 3. Justice Alexandre de Moraes was the rapporteur.
What the case was about
The charge concerned social media posts published in October 2021, while Eduardo Bolsonaro still held his seat. In them, he tied the congresswoman's support for a programme distributing free menstrual products to the interests of businessman Jorge Paulo Lemann and of manufacturers of the product.
His defence did not deny authorship. It argued the posts were legitimate political criticism within parliamentary debate, and invoked the immunity the Constitution grants members of Congress for their opinions and votes.
Why immunity did not apply
The majority held that the posts went beyond the bounds of political debate and bore no connection to the exercise of the mandate — the condition the court's case law requires for parliamentary immunity to reach statements made outside the floor. Attributing a corrupt motive to the congresswoman's legislative work, the justices found, damaged her reputation.
Voting with the rapporteur were Cármen Lúcia, Flávio Dino, Cristiano Zanin, Edson Fachin, Gilmar Mendes and Dias Toffoli. Luiz Fux, Kassio Nunes Marques and André Mendonça voted to acquit. Fachin noted that the detention may be converted into a restriction of rights at the enforcement stage.
Where the convicted man is
Eduardo Bolsonaro has lived in the United States since February 2025 and lost his seat in the Câmara dos Deputados (Chamber of Deputies) for excessive absences. That distance bears on enforcing an open-regime sentence, which assumes compliance with conditions set by a court in Brazil — a question still to be settled at the next stage of the case.
The penalty is detenção rather than reclusão, the lighter of the two custodial categories in Brazilian law: under an open regime the convicted person is not held in a closed facility, and substitution by alternative penalties is common for sentences of up to one year.
With information from Agência Brasil and Migalhas.
