🔗 Share this article

He contested justice and the law triumphed.

Sixty days after receiving a twenty-seven-year sentence for attempting to “annihilate” Brazil’s democracy, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro at last looks headed to prison.

Expected Imprisonment

The found-guilty plotter – who had been living under house arrest in his residence while a set of judicial steps and challenges proceed – is largely predicted to be imprisoned in the near future, amid mounting talk that he will be moved to a notorious top-security facility.

Past Comments on Convicts

Throughout Bolsonaro’s four-decade public life, the right-wing former paratrooper exhibited scant mercy for Brazil’s prison population.

“For what reason must we offer those dirtbags a easy time?” he previously wondered. “They should just get screwed, end of story. That’s what I reckon.”

In another instance, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “If you don’t want to finish behind bars, all you have to do is to avoid rape, kidnap or theft.”

Prison Facility Discussion

But the idea of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda prison top-security prison in Brasília has shocked allies, several of whom this week visited the complex in an seeming effort to prevent the high court from banishing him there.

Senator Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s political party who was part of that quartet, claimed he expected the septuagenarian leader to be imprisoned in the coming fortnight and worried his destination could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s severe gut ailments – the result of a near-fatal knife attack during the 2018 political campaign – signified it would be dangerous to keep the former president there. “His condition is extremely serious. He will not be able to manage if they take him to Papuda … It would be terrible,” he added, who also worried about overcrowded cells and the standard of prison meals.

During his tour Papuda, Lucas remembered observing cells containing forty prisoners: “That’s almost one square metre per detainee.

“We spoke to the convicts and they complain, of course, of the terrible food,” remarked the senator.

Supporters Speak Out

The senator isn't the sole person voicing opinions before the one-time head of state's expected imprisonment.

Writing in a prominent newspaper, a different supporter, the former cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “severe” finale to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” public service and alleged Brazil was about to see “the largest wrong in its record”.

“This is an injustice that gnaws the spirits of countless of Brazilians,” the former minister said.

Divided General Reaction

This could be accurate considering the substantial following Bolsonaro retains on the conservative side. But his expected imprisonment has also warmed the hearts of many other people who feel he ought to be imprisoned for plotting to block the elected leader from assuming office – and also plotting to have him murdered.

Congressman Otoni, a congressman for the incumbent president's Workers’ party, stated: “Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be put in a dark cell. Nobody desires Bolsonaro to be put in isolation. No one wants Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We desire him to get proper treatment – but proper handling in prison. He cannot continue being his own prison warden for his entire life.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro backers, who have long celebrating the severe treatment of prisoners, had unexpectedly woken up to their entitlements. “Just now has the far-right – which has repeatedly claimed that civil liberties should not be for offenders – opted to visit a jail to learn what circumstances are actually like,” he remarked.

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

Likely Jail Environment

Despite rumors that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which now contains about thousands of detainees, his probable assigned facility appears to be a nearby prison for officers and other “special” inmates called Papudinha (Little Papuda).

The accommodations are far more comfortable than those in the larger jail, although nonetheless a distant from the opulence Bolsonaro had while occupying the spectacular leader's home, approximately 12 miles away.

According to information, the accommodation Bolsonaro could likely reside in in Papudinha is about 260 square feet – approximately the area of two parking spaces – and contains a 12 sq metre WC with a shower and a 12 sq metre balcony. “The ex-president might be allowed to have a television and even a small fridge in his room as long as they were provided by his loved ones,” the report indicated.

Political Responses

The lawmaker denounced the talked-about plan to send the former leader to Papuda as “a form of revenge” on the part of the judicial authority who led Bolsonaro’s legal case and will rule on his future in the {