Brazil's Supreme Court sentenced three soldiers and a federal police officer to prison for planning to kill leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva before his inauguration.

The plan was to assassinate Lula before he could assume office after his 2022 presidential election win, in which he beat far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro. The plot was meant to keep Bolsonaro in power despite his election loss.

The four were sentenced to terms of between 21 and 24 years in prison, which will not start serving until all possible options to appeal have been exhausted.

Seventy-year-old Bolsonaro himself was sentenced to 27 years in prison for leading the plot to overturn the 2022 election results — called the "Green and Yellow Dagger" after the colors of the Brazilian flag — with the three soldiers and policeman being found guilty of planning its implementation, which included carrying out assassinations of officials.

Bolsonaro's appeal was rejected Friday. He maintains innocence.

Period of 'institutional darkness' avoided

Other than Lula, the 10-member-strong group planned to kill a host of other Brazilian officials, including Geraldo Alckmin, Lula's vice president, and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is also one of the trial's judges.

Other members of the group were sentenced to shorter jail terms beginning at one year and eleven months.

Justice Flavio Dino said Brazil "flirted with and almost fell into a chasm of institutional darkness" due to the plot.

"It was a coup that was going to arrest and kill people, revoke the constitution, citizenship and the free press," he added.

US President Donald Trump, a friend of Bolsonaro, announced a 50% tariff on Brazil due to what he called the "witch hunt" against the former president, marking what experts called the lowest point in the 200-year relations between the US and Brazil.

The two countries have seen an improvement in relations after leaders Lula and Trump spoke on the phone and met last month in Malaysia.

Edited by: Zac Crellin