Now he faces nearly three decades in prison for what prosecutors described as his most egregious act of defiance yet: plotting to cling on to power after losing elections to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The former army captain, who has the political backing of US President Donald Trump, was convicted Thursday of having led a criminal organization that aimed to prevent Lula taking office in early 2023.
The plot envisaged the assassination of Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin, and Alexandre de Moraes -- one of the five Supreme Court judges in his trial.
Moraes and three other judges voted over several days to convict him for a final verdict of 4-1, then pronounced a sentence of 27 years and three months.
Bolsonaro, 70, who has repeatedly voiced nostalgia for Brazil's 1964-1985 dictatorship, protests his innocence and claims to be the victim of political persecution.
- Bibles, bullets and beef -
Bolsonaro enjoys the support of Brazil's powerful "Bibles, bullets and beef" coalition -- Evangelical Christians, security hardliners and the agribusiness industry.
He shot to prominence after the 2016 impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff, with diatribes about corruption, violence, economic mismanagement and Brazil's "rotten" left.
On the campaign trail in 2018, he survived a knife attack that left him with severe abdominal wounds that continue to plague him to this day.
Bolsonaro's survival fueled followers' belief in their "Messiah" -- his middle name in Portuguese. Some have likened the attack to the 2024 attempt on Trump's life.
Nicknamed the "Trump of the Tropics," Bolsonaro's presidency was marked by Covid-19 denialism and rampant Amazon deforestation but also some early economic successes.
The pandemic, which Bolsonaro dismissed as a "little flu," claimed more than 700,000 lives in Brazil, second only to the United States.
Smarting from his failure to win a second presidential term, he left Brazil for Florida two days before the end of his mandate, snubbing Lula's inauguration.
A week later, on January 8, 2023, rampaging Bolsonaro supporters calling for the army to oust Lula stormed the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court.
Prosecutors accuse Bolsonaro, under house arrest since last month, of having incited the violence.
- History of controversy -
Born in 1955 to a Catholic family with Italian roots, Bolsonaro served in the army before launching his political career in the late 1980s as a Rio de Janeiro city councilor.
In 1991, he was elected to Congress.
He has a long history of homophobic, misogynistic and racist comments delivered in a belligerent, everyman style which endeared him to many.
In 2011, he told Playboy magazine he would rather his sons be killed in an accident than come out as gay.
Three years later, he said a left-wing lawmaker was "not worth raping" because she was "too ugly."
The fact that one of his children is a daughter, Bolsonaro has said, was the result of a moment of "weakness" on his part.
His third wife, Michelle, is 27 years his junior.
Bolsonaro's son Eduardo moved to the United States in February, where he successfully lobbied the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Moraes.
Trump also imposed a 50 percent tariff on a range of Brazilian imports.
Before the trial, Bolsonaro had hoped to overturn a ruling that barred him from holding public office until 2030 for spreading misinformation about Brazil's electoral system.
But his guilty verdict on five coup-related charges will likely scupper his hopes for a Trump-style return to the highest office after an election loss and criminal conviction.
He can still appeal.
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