President Lula has indicated he will veto legislation but conservative lawmakers likely to overturn his decision

Brazil’s congress has approved a bill to reduce the prison term of Jair Bolsonaro, the former president who was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison for masterminding an attempted coup to overturn the 2022 elections.

Approved last week by the lower house and late on Wednesday by the senate, the bill now goes to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has 15 working days to sign or veto it.

Brazil’s leftist president – who, investigations showed, was the target of an assassination plan as part of the coup plot – has already indicated he is likely to veto the bill, but that decision would probably be overturned afterwards by the largely conservative congress.