🔗 Share this article

He contested justice and the law won.

A couple of months following getting a twenty-seven-year sentence for seeking to “annihilate” the nation's political system, former president Jair Bolsonaro finally appears jail-bound.

Anticipated Jailing

The adjudicated plotter – who has been living under house arrest in his mansion while a set of judicial steps and appeals unfold – is widely expected to be jailed in the coming days, during increasing speculation that he will be sent to a notorious top-security facility.

Historical Statements on Prisoners

Throughout Bolsonaro’s four-decade public life, the far-right ex- military man displayed scant compassion for Brazil’s jailed individuals.

“What’s the need to provide these scoundrels a good life?” he once pondered. “They deserve to be fucked, period. That's my view.”

In another instance, Bolsonaro declared: “Unless you desire to finish in prison, all you have to do is not sexual assault, kidnap or theft.”

Prison Facility Debate

Yet the possibility of Bolsonaro himself landing in the Papuda top-security prison in Brasília has shocked backers, a group of four this week toured the facility in an apparent attempt to dissuade the high court from banishing him there.

Senator Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was part of that quartet, said he predicted the elderly figure to be imprisoned in the coming fortnight and was concerned his assigned prison could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s serious gut ailments – the outcome of a near-fatal knife attack during the 2018 presidential campaign – signified it would be dangerous to keep the ex-leader there. “His [health] situation is very grave. He won’t be able to manage if they take him to Papuda … It could be dreadful,” he commented, who also worried about packed cells and the condition of jail cuisine.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas remembered witnessing cells holding four dozen detainees: “That is virtually one square meter per detainee.

“We spoke to the inmates and they grumble, of course, of the horrible meals,” added the senator.

Supporters Speak Out

The senator isn't the lone figure speaking out ahead of the former president’s predicted detention.

Writing in a leading newspaper, a different supporter, the ex- government official Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “harsh” finale to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” time in office and claimed Brazil was about to witness “the largest wrong in its history”.

“It is an wrong that erodes the spirits of millions Brazilian citizens,” the former minister said.

Varied Popular Response

That may be correct due to the considerable following Bolsonaro holds on the right-wing. However his expected incarceration has also pleased the hearts of numerous others who feel he deserves to be jailed for conspiring to block the elected leader from assuming office – and even plotting to have him murdered.

Reimont Otoni, a congressman for the current president's Workers’ party, stated: “Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be put in a hole. Nobody desires Bolsonaro to be placed in segregation. No one desires Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We want him to receive respectful treatment – but proper treatment in prison. He must not continue being his self-appointed guard for his entire life.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro backers, who have long applauding the harsh treatment of convicts, had unexpectedly woken up to their privileges. “Recently has the extreme right – which has consistently asserted that civil liberties were not for offenders – chosen to tour a jail to discover what situations are truly like,” he remarked.

“The former president is a criminal,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he earned “degrading, degrading conduct”.

Possible Prison Conditions

In spite of talk that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which now holds about 14,000 inmates, his expected location seems to be a close penitentiary for officers and other “particular” inmates referred to as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

His potential cell are far more comfortable than those in the primary facility, although still a distant from the comfort Bolsonaro experienced while living in the impressive leader's home, around 20 kilometers away.

As per reports, the room Bolsonaro could likely occupy in Papudinha is about 24 sq metres – approximately the dimensions of vehicle spaces – and features a 130 square foot bathroom with a bathing area and a 12 sq metre balcony. “Bolsonaro would be permitted to have a TV and additionally a small fridge in his cell as long as they were supplied by his relatives,” the report stated.

Ideological Responses

The lawmaker criticized the speculated proposal to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “a type of payback” on the part of the supreme court judge who presided over Bolsonaro’s legal case and will rule on his outcome in the {