RIO DE JANEIRO (CN) - Brazil's Congress on Thursday overrode President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's full veto of a bill that could reduce prison time for people - including former President Jair Bolsonaro - convicted over the Jan. 8, 2023, attacks on Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace.

The veto was rejected by 318 lawmakers in the lower house and 49 senators, surpassing the absolute majority required in both chambers. The bill, approved by Congress in December, is now set to become law.

The bill, known in Brazil as the sentencing calculation bill, changes how criminal sentences are calculated and enforced. 

Under the bill, penalties for coup d'etat and violent abolition of the democratic rule of law would not be added together when the crimes are committed in the same context. In those cases, only the harsher sentence would apply, with an increase of one-sixth to one-half.

It also allows sentence reductions of one-third to two-thirds for attempted coup or attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law when the crimes were committed in a crowd, provided the defendant did not finance the acts or play a leadership role.

Bolsonaro was sentenced by Brazil's Supreme Court in September 2025 to 27 years and three months in prison for five crimes related to his attempt to stay in power after losing the 2022 election. The new bill could reduce his sentence and shorten the minimum time he must serve in a maximum-security facility, though its application will depend on a judicial decision during the sentence enforcement phase.

Antonio Jose Teixeira Martins, a criminal law professor at Rio de Janeiro State University, said that, with the veto override, the law takes effect as originally drafted.

Because it is a more favorable criminal rule, Martins said, it can apply retroactively and reach cases that have already been decided. But defense attorneys will have to ask the judiciary to review the sentences.

During the session, Bolsonaro allies defended the bill as a correction of sentences they considered excessive. 

Senator Sergio Moro, the former judge who led Brazil's Car Wash corruption probe, said he had been strict during his 22 years as a judge and had sent "thieves of public coffers to prison without mercy," but could not agree with what he considered excessive sentences for people involved in the Jan. 8 attacks.

"No one agrees with the invasion of public buildings, but people also cannot be convicted without evidence that they broke a glass of water and receive such harsh sentences," Moro said. "[That is why] I helped build a text that focused only on those convicted over Jan. 8."

Government-aligned and left-wing lawmakers accused Congress of trying to soften the judicial response to the attacks on the seats of Brazil's three branches of government. 

Congresswoman Gleisi Hoffmann, a former president of the Workers' Party and former institutional relations minister in Lula's administration, said the session was "a disgrace to the country" and "an attack on the Constitution and our democracy."

"To cover up for an attempted coup and for coup plotters is the same as saying: do it again," Hoffmann said. "Vandalize Congress again. Vandalize the Supreme Court again. Vandalize the presidential palace again. And try to stage a coup to remove an elected president. That is the message we leave for the future."

The session was presided over by Senate President Davi Alcolumbre, who declared parts of the bill moot because they could conflict with the Anti-Faction Law, enacted in March. Without that decision, the veto override could have restored more lenient sentence progression rules for other serious crimes, including organized crime and femicide.

Left-wing parties challenged Alcolumbre's decision and said they plan to take the case to the Supreme Court. 

Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, the government leader in Congress, said the veto override could also be challenged on the grounds that crimes against the democratic rule of law are not subject to amnesty, pardon or sentence reduction.

Martins said the main legal challenge may center on the law's constitutionality. 

In his view, the problem is not easing sentence progression, which is part of the logic of the criminal justice system, but creating a rule aimed at a specific group of convicts.

According to Martins, the change breaks with the general logic of Brazil's Penal Code by creating a separate rule for crimes against the democratic rule of law and replacing technical criteria with a broader notion of the crimes' "context." 

He also sees a risk of violation of separation of powers if the Legislature is understood to have acted to alter the effects of specific judicial decisions.

Rodrigo Stumpf Gonzalez, a political science professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, said the veto override was another chapter in a power struggle between Congress and the Supreme Court, with Lula's government caught in the middle.

Gonzalez said Congress used criticism that the Supreme Court had imposed excessive sentences on Jan. 8 rioters to also reduce penalties for Bolsonaro and his aides in the coup plot case.

"It is another example of political interests being placed above the protection of institutions," he said.

On Wednesday, the Senate's rejection of Jorge Messias for the Supreme Court exposed the strength of a coalition willing to confront Lula and the court, especially on issues tied to cases against Bolsonaro and his allies.

Messias was questioned for nearly eight hours before being rejected by a 42-34 vote. During the hearing, senators pressed him on limits to the Supreme Court's power, individual decisions by justices and a possible amnesty for those convicted over Jan. 8.

Courthouse News reporter Marilia Marasciulo is based in Brazil.

Source: Courthouse News Service