🔗 Share this article

He battled the legal system and justice won.

Sixty days after being handed a quarter-century plus sentence for attempting to “destroy” the nation's democratic institutions, former president Jair Bolsonaro finally appears destined for incarceration.

Imminent Jailing

The found-guilty coup-monger – who's been living under home confinement in his mansion while a set of court processes and petitions play out – is broadly anticipated to be imprisoned in the near future, during growing talk that he will be sent to a notorious top-security penitentiary.

Historical Comments on Inmates

During Bolsonaro’s long political career, the far-right ex- military man showed minimal mercy for the country's prison population.

“For what reason must we provide those dirtbags a easy time?” he once pondered. “They deserve to be screwed, full-fucking-stop. That's my view.”

In another instance, Bolsonaro stated: “Unless you desire to end up in prison, all you have to do is to avoid sexual assault, kidnap or theft.”

Prison Facility Discussion

But the idea of Bolsonaro himself landing in the Papuda top-security prison in Brasília has horrified supporters, four of whom this week toured the facility in an obvious effort to prevent the high court from banishing him there.

Izalci Lucas, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was one of the visitors, said he anticipated the 70-year-old figure to be jailed in the following week and a half and worried his assigned prison could be Papuda.

The senator argued Bolsonaro’s serious digestive ailments – the outcome of a life-threatening knife attack during the 2018 election race – meant it would be dangerous to keep the ex-leader there. “His [health] situation is extremely serious. He will not be able to manage if they take him to Papuda … It will be terrible,” he added, who also worried about packed cells and the standard of prison meals.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas remembered witnessing cells holding 40 detainees: “That is practically one square metre per prisoner.

“We conversed to the inmates and they protest, of course, of the terrible food,” added the senator.

Backers Speak Out

Lucas is not the lone figure speaking out ahead of the former president’s expected imprisonment.

Authoring in a prominent publication, another ally, the former cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “severe” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” time in office and asserted Brazil was about to see “the largest unfairness in its history”.

“This is an injustice that gnaws the spirits of millions Brazilian citizens,” he stated.

Mixed Public Reaction

That may be accurate due to the significant support Bolsonaro retains on the right-wing. Yet his anticipated imprisonment has also warmed the feelings of millions others who believe he deserves to be jailed for conspiring to block the elected leader from becoming president – and even scheming to have him murdered.

Reimont Otoni, a congressman for the incumbent administration's Workers’ party, commented: “Not a soul desires Bolsonaro to be sent in a dark cell. Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be sent in solitary confinement. Nobody wants Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to lie on concrete. We want him to obtain dignified handling – but proper treatment while incarcerated. He must not continue being his own prison warden for his lifetime.”

He observed how Bolsonaro backers, who have for a long time applauding the tough conditions of prisoners, had abruptly realized to their rights. “Just now has the conservative fringe – which has always asserted that human rights should not be for offenders – opted to tour a penitentiary to discover what situations are truly like,” he stated.

“He is a lawbreaker,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he merited “humiliating, insulting conduct”.

Potential Jail Environment

In spite of rumors that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which now contains about 14,000 detainees, his expected assigned facility appears to be a close jail for officers and other “unique” detainees known as Papudinha (Small Papuda).

Its cells are far more adequate than those in the larger jail, although nonetheless a world away from the comfort Bolsonaro enjoyed while living in the spectacular official residence, around 12 miles away.

Based on sources, the accommodation Bolsonaro could expect to inhabit in Papudinha is about 24 sq metres – approximately the area of a couple of car spots – and features a 12 square meter bathroom with a bathing area and a 12 sq metre terrace. “The ex-president might be authorized to have a television and additionally a cooler in his cell as long as they were provided by his loved ones,” the report stated.

Political Responses

He condemned the talked-about plan to send the ex-president to Papuda as “an act of retaliation” on the part of the supreme court judge who led Bolsonaro’s legal case and will decide his future in the {