Brazil's former President, Jair Bolsonaro, has been sentenced to nearly 30 years in prison after being found guilty of plotting a coup.
Bolsonaro was convicted by a Supreme Court majority on Thursday and sentenced to 27 years and three months behind bars.
The former President plotted a coup to remain in power after he lost the 2022 election.
However, the imprisonment of such a strong ally of Donald Trump has angered many in the US administration.
Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to nearly 30 years in prison | GETTYUS Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: "The political persecutions by sanctioned human rights abuser Alexandre de Moraes continue, as he and others on Brazil's Supreme Court have unjustly rules to imprison former President Jair Bolsonaro.
"The United States will respond accordingly to this witch hunt."
The presumptive ruling by a majority of a panel of five justices in Brazil's Supreme Court makes Bolsonaro the first former President in the country's history to be convicted for attacking democracy.
JAIR BOLSONARO - READ MORE:
Trump meeting with Bolsonaro in March 2020 | GETTYBolsonaro was accused of five offences including taking part in an armed criminal organisation, attempting to violently abolish democracy, organising a coup, and damaging government property and protected cultural assets.
"This criminal case is almost a meeting between Brazil and its past, its present, and its future," Justice Carmen Lucia said before she voted to convict Bolsonaro of attempting a coup, a reference to previous attempts to overthrow democracy in the country's history.
There was ample evidence, she added, that Bolsonaro acted "with the purpose of eroding democracy and institutions".
Bolsonaro has not been present in court for any of the sessions occurring in the final part of the trial, and his lawyers are said to have citied health reasons for his absence.
Supporters gathered in the days leading up to Bolsonaro's trial
|REUTERS
The former Army captain began his presidency in 2019 but left his post after losing to his left-wing opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in the 2022 elections.
On January 8, 2023, supporters of Bolsonaro who refused to accept his election defeat stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace.
In the days leading up to the conclusion of his trial, thousands of supporters staged protests across several cities.
Demonstrators in Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo waved Brazilian flags alongside some US flags, in what appeared to be a nod to Donald Trump.
Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the former President's eldest son, told supporters who gathered at Copacabana Beach, in Rio de Janeiro, that his father will face the situation head-on "to demonstrate yet again that he will not give up on Brazil".