Tens of thousands of Brazilians have taken to the streets to demand no amnesty be granted to their country's former president, Jair Bolsonaro, after he was convicted of plotting a coup.
The far-right populist was sentenced to 27 years in prison earlier this month for illegally attempting to cling to power after he lost the 2022 presidential election to his leftwing opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
On Sunday, huge crowds packed the squares and beaches of some of Brazil's biggest cities to voice their opposition to rightwing endeavors to help Bolsonaro escape jail for his failed power grab, which included a plan to assassinate Lula, the vice-president, Geraldo Alckmin, and a supreme court judge.
The pro-democracy protests were spearheaded by some of Brazil's best-loved musicians, including a trio of legendary songwriters who were at the forefront of the fight against the country's brutal 1964-85 military dictatorship: Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque and Gilberto Gil.
Veloso, 83, said on the eve of the march: "This cannot go unanswered ... We have to go out on to the streets, as we have in the past, to say that we - as a people, as a nation - will not accept this."
Protesters also voiced anger at how Brazil's conservative-dominated lower house had this week approved draft legislation - denounced by critics as the "Bandit's Bill" - that would make it harder for lawmakers to be charged or arrested for alleged crimes.
Stars of stage and screen turned out at marches in other major cities to decry that bill and congressional efforts to reduce Bolsonaro's sentence as part of a supposed attempt to "pacify" the politically divided South American country.
"Long live democracy! Long live Brazil!"
the Golden Globe-nominated actor Wagner Moura told a sea of protesters in Salvador, the capital of his home state, Bahia.
Moura, the star of the Netflix drama Narcos, hailed the "extraordinary moment" his country's democracy was experiencing after Bolsonaro's historic conviction - a contrast with the democratic backsliding in the US under Bolsonaro's re-elected ally, Donald Trump.
In São Paulo, tens of thousands gathered outside the city's art museum and hoisted a giant Brazilian flag over their heads - a patriotic response to Trump's unsuccessful attempts to interfere in Bolsonaro's trial with a pressure campaign of tariffs and sanctions.
At a rally in Belo Horizonte, local singer Fernanda Takai denounced the "shameless" manoeuvres to help Bolsonaro dodge jail and politicians avoid being held to account for their misdeeds. "We need to take a stand, to show how angry we are," Takai told the newspaper Estado de Minas.
In the capital, Brasília, where Bolsonaro is currently under house arrest, thousands assembled near the congress and supreme court buildings that were trashed by rightwing radicals on 8 January 2023 at the climax of the former president's coup attempt.
There were also protests overseas, including in Berlin, Lisbon and London, where demonstrators gathered outside parliament to demand Bolsonaro be jailed.
Before the rallies - Brazil's largest pro-democracy demonstrations in years - Buarque, who was forced into exile in Italy in the late 1960s during the military dictatorship, spurned the idea of an amnesty for Bolsonaro.
"We do not want a repeat of the 1979 amnesty ... which meant that nobody was punished [for the regime's crimes],"
the celebrated singer-songwriter told the news website UOL.
Buarque rejected the idea that granting Bolsonaro and his seven co-conspirators an amnesty would reduce political tensions. "It was the putschists who committed the crime. We [democrats] owe them nothing,"
the singer said.