In the chamber where Bolsonaro supporters rioted three years ago, Brazil's Congress voted on April 30 to shorten the prison sentence of former president Jair Bolsonaro. The Chamber of Deputies voted 318 to 144, and the Senate voted 49 to 24, overriding President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's veto of a new dosimetry law.
Bolsonaro, aged 71, was serving 27 years and 3 months under house arrest for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election to Lula. The new law could reduce his sentence by roughly 20 years. Under the dosimetry rules, courts will no longer add up sentences for separate crimes. Instead, judges will apply only the highest sentence and increase it by a factor between one-sixth and one-half. Approximately 280 people convicted for the January 8, 2023 riots could also have their sentences reduced.
The vote carried strong symbolic meaning. Lula had issued his full veto on January 8, 2026, exactly three years after the riots. Less than four months later, Congress undid it. One senator called it "a first and much awaited step" toward full amnesty. The defeat was especially sharp because, just one day earlier, the Senate rejected Lula's Supreme Court nominee. Bolsonaro remains under house arrest, but Wednesday's vote gave him back something valuable: time.