May 1 (UPI) -- Brazil's Congress approved legislation that could significantly reduce prison sentences for former President Jair Bolsonaro and several supporters convicted over the 2023 attempted coup.
Both chambers of Congress voted Thursday by wide margins to overturn a veto by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, allowing changes to how sentences are served for crimes linked to coup attempts.
Local media described the vote as further evidence of tensions between Lula's government and a Congress dominated by conservative factions.
Newspapers, including Estadão and Folha de S.Paulo, said lawmakers dealt a "double blow" to Lula in less than 24 hours after the Senate also rejected, for the first time in 130 years, a presidential nominee for Brazil's Supreme Court.
The legislation would directly benefit Bolsonaro, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison for leading the alleged coup plot, as well as dozens of former officials and hundreds of demonstrators linked to the Jan. 8, 2023, assault on government institutions in Brasília.
