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Nelson Ribeiro has been handed a 17-year sentence for taking a Neymar-signed ball during Brazil’s 2023 political riots.
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His acts were a component of a broader assault on the nation’s democracy.
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Meanwhile, former president Bolsonaro is on trial amid claims he planned to impede Lula’s rise to power.
Nelson Ribeiro Fonseca Junior, 34, got 17 years behind bars for swiping a Neymar-autographed football during the January 8, 2023, pro-Bolsonaro riots in Brasilia.
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Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court found him guilty of theft, trying to overthrow democracy, joining an armed criminal group, and plotting a coup.
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At the time, thousands of Jair Bolsonaro backers broke into Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace to protest Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s election victory.
Ribeiro confessed to grabbing the ball—given to the Chamber of Deputies by Santos FC in 2012 saying he “protected” it after spotting it on the floor.
He handed it back 20 days later, but judges dismissed his defense.
Presiding Justice Alexandre de Moraes pointed to Ribeiro’s “active participation” in the violence and stressed that the Neymar-signed ball is a “public good belonging to Brazil’s cultural heritage.”
So far, over 500 people have been convicted for taking part in the unrest.
Meanwhile, Bolsonaro was in the United States when the buildings were stormed.
He’s now on trial in Brazil, accused of planning to stop Lula’s inauguration—a plan that prosecutors say fell apart without military backing.
However, the ex-army captain, and one-term president, Bolsonaro maintains his innocence
