The First Panel of Brazil’s Supreme Court has convicted more than 800 people accused of participating in acts that sought to undermine democracy and the functioning of state institutions, three years after the January 8, 2023 coup attempts, during the final phase of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s government.

The figures were compiled by the office of Justice Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur for the coup-related cases, up to mid-December 2025, and may still be updated.

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After the coup attempts, the Attorney General’s Office filed 1,734 criminal actions with the Supreme Court. The defendants were divided among instigators, executors, and four main nuclei that supported Bolsonaro’s attempt to remain in power after losing the election, thereby seeking to subvert the democratic order.

Nuclei

With the conclusion of the trial of defendants in the coup plot cases, the court sentenced 29 people to prison across the four main nuclei. Only two defendants were acquitted.

Army General Estevam Theófilo, indicted in Nucleus 3, and Fernando de Sousa Oliveira, a career Federal Police officer and former director of operations at the Ministry of Justice, a defendant in Nucleus 2, were the only acquitted defendants due to lack of evidence.

To date, only those in Nucleus 1, which includes former President Jair Bolsonaro and seven others, have had their sentences executed, while the remaining nuclei are still under appeal.

The convictions covered crimes including attempted violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, coup d’état, participation in an armed criminal organization, aggravated damage, and the destruction of protected heritage.

The First Panel - the collegiate body responsible for the trial - held 21 sessions over four months to judge the four nuclei.

Nucleus 5 consists solely of defendant Paulo Figueiredo, grandson of former president João Figueiredo, who governed during the military dictatorship. He lives in the United States, and there is no trial date set.

Fugitives

Alexandre Ramagem, a former federal representative and former director of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin) under the Bolsonaro government, was sentenced to 16 years in prison in a coup plot–related criminal case and fled to the United States to avoid serving his sentence.

The extradition request is already being processed. As a result of the conviction, Ramagem lost his parliamentary mandate.

Approximately 60 people convicted in the coup attempts remain fugitives in Argentina after breaking their electronic ankle monitors and are now the subject of extradition requests.

Instigators and executors

The largest group of convictions comes from the nucleus of instigators and executors of the coup attempts, with 810 convictions in total. Of these, 395 were for criminal organization, attempted abolition of the democratic rule of law, and coup d’état, while 415 were for incitement to crime and criminal association, which are considered less serious offenses.

Among those convicted in this nucleus is hairdresser Débora Rodrigues dos Santos. In April of this year, she was sentenced to 14 years in prison for participating in the January 8, 2023 coup attempts and for spray-painting the phrase “You lost, fool” on the statue of Justice in front of the Supreme Court building. She is currently under house arrest.

ANPP

To date, the court has approved more than 560 non-prosecution agreements (ANPPs). The agreements were proposed by the Attorney General’s Office to individuals under investigation who were in front of the Army barracks in Brasília and did not take part in the acts of vandalism against Congress, the presidential palace, and the Supreme Court.

Under the agreements, the defendants must perform community service and pay fines of between BRL 1,000 and BRL 5,000.

They are also barred from using social media and are required to attend a course on democracy, the rule of law, and coups d’état. In return, they will not be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office.

All defendants must jointly pay BRL 30 million in compensation for the damage caused by the vandalism.

Loss of office and ineligibility

As a result of the convictions, those found guilty are ineligible to hold public office for eight years. Army officers will also face proceedings in the Military Court that may result in the loss of their officer rank, while public servants are expected to lose their statutory positions.

The house arrests of eight of the 10 convicts in the coup plot ocurred in Brasília were upheld after a hearing held on Saturday (Dec. 27) by auxiliary judge Luciana Yuki Fugishita Sorrentino, from the office of Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

The hearings aimed to fulfill legal formalities, as the arrests had already been ordered by Moraes, the rapporteur for the coup plot cases at the Supreme Court. Among those who participated in the custody hearings were six Army officers, a senior official of the Federal Police, and Filipe Martins, a former international affairs adviser to former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Notícias relacionadas:

• Christmas pardon decree leaves out coup plotters.
• Lula pledges to veto bill that softens penalties for attempted coup.
• Supreme Court concludes coup plot trial; 29 convicted.

Carlos Cesar Moretzsohn Rocha, president of Instituto Voto Legal, was not located by the Federal Police and is considered a fugitive. The house arrest warrant against Army Lieutenant Colonel Guilherme Marques de Almeida was also not served. He traveled to Bahia but committed to returning to Goiânia to begin serving the measure.

Escapes

The house arrests were ordered by Moraes as a preventive measure against further escapes. On Friday (26), former Federal Highway Police director Silvinei Vasques was detained by local authorities after fleeing to Paraguay and attempting to board a flight to El Salvador with a false passport.

According to Moraes, there is a coordinated strategy among individuals convicted of coup-related offenses to leave the country. The justice pointed to multiple escape cases, including that of former Representative Alexandre Ramagem to the United States.

“The modus operandi of the criminal organization convicted by the Supreme Court indicates the possibility of planning and executing escapes outside the national territory, as carried out by the defendant Alexandre Ramagem, including with the help of third parties,” Justice Moraes stated.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, of Brazil’s Supreme Court, said Tuesday (Dec. 23) that the meetings he had with the president of the country’s Central Bank, Gabriel Galípolo, were held solely to discuss the Magnitsky Act – which the US government applied against the justice.

Moraes’ statement was released one day after the newspaper O Globo published a report stating he had defended the approval of the purchase of Banco Master by Banco Regional de Brasília (BRB), a public financial institution linked to Brazil’s Federal District government, during talks with Galípolo.

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The meetings allegedly took place before the Central Bank’s decision last month to liquidate Banco Master due to suspected fraud. The investigation also led to the preventive detention of banker Daniel Vorcaro, one of the bank’s partners. Days later, Vorcaro was granted habeas corpus by federal court authorities and is now facing charges at liberty.

Before the liquidation ordered by the Central Bank, the Barci de Moraes law firm, which belongs to the Justice Moraes’s family, had provided services to Banco Master.

In a press release, Alexandre de Moraes stated that, in addition to Galípolo, he also met with representatives from banks Itaú, Bradesco, BTG, and Banco do Brasil, in addition to bank associations Febraban and the National Confederation of Financial Institutions to discuss the consequences of the Magnitsky Act.

“At all meetings, specific issues related to the serious consequences of the application of the aforementioned law were discussed – in particular the possibility of maintaining bank transactions, current accounts, credit cards, and debit cards,” it said in a statement.

The Central Bank has confirmed that the meetings addressed the effects of the law.

On December 12, the US government announced the withdrawal of economic sanctions under the Magnitsky Act, which had been imposed by the US government against Moraes, his wife, lawyer Viviane Barci de Moraes, and Lex (Institute for Legal Studies), a company linked to the justice’s family.

The sanctions were imposed by the administration of President Donald Trump, a supporter of former Brazilian President Bolsonaro, in retaliation against Moraes, who is rapporteur for the cases brought against Bolsonaro.