Brazil's Supreme Court on Thursday sentenced a man to 17 years in jail his participation in post-election riots in January.

It is the first verdict in trials against supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Protesters attacked government buildings in an attempt to restore the far-right populist to office following his defeat by leftist candidate  Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil's 2022 presidential election.

Who was convicted over the pro-Bolsonaro riots?

Aecio Lucio Costa Pereira was one of roughly 1,500 people arrested on January 8 of this year when they attacked federal government buildings in the capital Brasilia; breaching security, smashing windows and severely damaging the Supreme Federal Court, the National Congress and the Planalto Presidential Palace upon entering.

In delivering the Court's verdict, Justice Cristiano Zanin said, "The [rioters'] objective was to violently seize Brasilia and spread a criminal attack against the rule of law in the country."

Eight of the 11 judges presiding over the case found Pereira guilty on five counts: criminal association, staging a coup, violent attack on the rule of law, qualified damage, and destruction of public assets.

The other three judges, two of whom were Bolsonaro appointees, found him guilty of some but not all charges and sought a lighter sentence.

What the defendant said at his trial

Though 51-year-old Pereira claimed he was innocent of any wrongdoing, surveillance cameras at the National Congress showed him wearing a shirt calling for military intervention as well as recording himself praising those who broke into the building alongside him.

Pereira told the court that he had partaken in an unarmed, peaceful demonstration. Still, cellphone video captured him calling for citizens to take to the streets to overthrown Lula — who was president of Brazil between 2003-2010 and defeated Bolsonaro by the narrowest margin in modern Brazilian history.

Pereira stood trial along with three other defendants. Those beside him could each face up to 30 years behind bars. Some 232 cases related to the riot are currently on the Court's docket.

Divisions in Brazil and among Supreme Court justices

The polarization that grips Brazil was also on display in the Court when Bolsonaro-appointed Justice Andre Mendonca seemed to suggest the Lula government had somehow orchestrated the attack.

Mendonca's comments drew a sharp rebuke from Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who retorted: "You come to the plenary of the Supreme Court that was destroyed and say there was a conspiracy of the government against itself. Spare us."

Bolsonaro, spent months making baseless accusations of voter fraud before and after the election. Though he has claimed innocence, Bolsonaro was banned from running for office for eight years over the bogus allegations.

Investigations into possible police and military ties to the riots are currently ongoing with prosecutors looking into the protest's financial backers, as well as into what role, if any, Bolsonaro played in inciting the attack.

Lula, who had been inaugurated on January 1, was not in the capital at the time of the attack; nor was Bolsonaro in the country, having gone to Florida in the US after his defeat.

The events that led to the attack as well as the riot itself bore similarities to events in the US when Bolsonaro role-model Donald Trump was defeated.

js/rt (AFP, AP)