🔗 Share this article

He contested the law and justice won.

Two months subsequent to receiving a twenty-seven-year sentence for attempting to “eradicate” Brazil’s democratic institutions, former president Jair Bolsonaro now seems headed to prison.

Expected Jailing

The convicted plotter – who's been under residential detention in his residence while a set of court processes and appeals proceed – is widely expected to be imprisoned in the coming days, during increasing speculation that he will be moved to a infamous maximum security penitentiary.

Historical Remarks on Convicts

Over Bolsonaro’s 40-year time in politics, the conservative former military man exhibited scant compassion for Brazil’s jailed individuals.

“For what reason must we offer those dirtbags a easy time?” he previously wondered. “They ought to simply be messed, end of story. That's my opinion.”

In another instance, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “If you don’t want to finish there, the only thing required is not sexual assault, abduction or rob.”

Jail Location Debate

Yet the prospect of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda high-security prison in Brasília has horrified backers, several of whom this week toured the complex in an seeming bid to discourage the supreme court from sending him there.

Izalci Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was among that group, stated he predicted the elderly figure to be jailed in the coming fortnight and worried his destination could be Papuda.

The senator argued Bolsonaro’s severe digestive issues – the outcome of a life-threatening knife attack during the 2018 presidential presidential campaign – signified it would be dangerous to keep the ex-leader there. “His health is extremely serious. He will not be able to cope if they send him to Papuda … It would be awful,” he added, who also worried about cramped cells and the standard of prison meals.

During his tour Papuda, Lucas noted seeing cells accommodating forty detainees: “That is virtually one square metre per detainee.

“We spoke to the inmates and they complain, of course, of the awful cuisine,” continued the senator.

Allies React

Lucas is not the only voice voicing opinions prior to the ex-leader's expected detention.

Writing in a major publication, one more backer, the former cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “severe” finale to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” public service and alleged Brazil was about to experience “the largest political injustice in its past”.

“It represents an wrong that eats away the spirits of many people in Brazil,” Wajngarten wrote.

Divided Public Reaction

That may be accurate considering the significant backing Bolsonaro retains on the conservative side. Yet his expected jailing has also pleased the spirits of numerous individuals who feel he deserves to be imprisoned for plotting to block his successor from taking power – and additionally conspiring to have him murdered.

Reimont Otoni, a representative for the sitting administration's Workers’ party, said: “Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be sent in a dungeon. No one wants Bolsonaro to be sent in segregation. No one wishes Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to lie on concrete. We wish him to get dignified care – but respectful handling while incarcerated. He can’t persist being his personal jailer for his whole life.”

The congressman noted how Bolsonaro backers, who have for a long time praising the tough handling of convicts, had unexpectedly become aware to their entitlements. “Only now has the far-right – which has consistently claimed that basic rights were not for lawbreakers – opted to inspect a jail to discover what situations are truly like,” he remarked.

“Bolsonaro is a lawbreaker,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he merited “shameful, insulting handling”.

Possible Jail Environment

Despite speculation that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which now holds about thousands of prisoners, his probable assigned facility seems to be a nearby prison for officers and other “unique” prisoners called Papudinha (Little Papuda).

His potential cell are much more adequate than those in the main prison, although nevertheless a far cry from the comfort Bolsonaro enjoyed while residing in the spectacular leader's home, about 20 kilometers away.

Based on sources, the accommodation Bolsonaro could anticipate reside in in Papudinha has about 24 sq metres – roughly the dimensions of vehicle spaces – and contains a 12 square meter WC with a shower and a 130 square foot veranda. “The ex-president might be allowed to have a TV and even a minibar in his room as long as they were provided by his family,” sources stated.

Ideological Comments

The lawmaker denounced the rumoured proposal to send the ex-president to Papuda as “a type of revenge” on the part of the presiding magistrate who oversaw Bolsonaro’s coup trial and will determine his outcome in the {