The former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison after being found guilty of plotting a military coup.

Axar.az reports, citing BBC, a panel of five Supreme Court justices handed down the sentence just hours after they had convicted the former leader.

They ruled he was guilty of leading a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the 2022 election to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Four of the justices found him guilty while one voted to acquit him. Bolsonaro's lawyers have called the sentence "absurdly excessive" and said that they would file "the appropriate appeals".

The Supreme Court panel also barred him from running for public office until 2033.

Bolsonaro, who was put under house arrest after being deemed a flight risk, did not attend this final phase of the trial in person.

But he has in the past said it was designed to prevent him from running in the 2026 presidential election - even though he had already been barred from public office on separate charges. He has also called it a "witch hunt".