🔗 Share this article

He contested justice and the legal system won.

Two months subsequent to being handed a twenty-seven-year sentence for attempting to “eradicate” Brazil’s democracy, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro now seems headed to prison.

Expected Jailing

The convicted instigator – who had been under residential detention in his residence while a set of legal procedures and challenges proceed – is largely predicted to be imprisoned in the coming days, amidst increasing talk that he will be transferred to a infamous high-security facility.

Previous Comments on Inmates

Throughout Bolsonaro’s four-decade public life, the conservative former paratrooper showed scant compassion for Brazil’s jailed individuals.

“What’s the need to offer these scoundrels a good life?” he once mused. “They deserve to be messed, full-fucking-stop. That's my view.”

At another time, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “If you don’t want to finish behind bars, you simply need is to avoid sexual assault, kidnap or rob.”

Prison Destination Discussion

Yet the prospect of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda high-security prison in Brasília has shocked backers, four of whom this week inspected the prison in an seeming bid to discourage the judiciary from sending him there.

The senator, a politician from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was part of that quartet, claimed he predicted the elderly politician to be jailed in the following week and a half and worried his destination could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s acute intestinal problems – the outcome of a near-fatal stabbing during the 2018 presidential campaign – implied it would be hazardous to keep the former president there. “His condition is extremely serious. He will not be able to manage if they move him to Papuda … It will be dreadful,” said the senator, who also expressed concern about cramped cells and the condition of prison meals.

When inspecting Papuda, Lucas noted witnessing cells containing 40 inmates: “It's practically one meter squared per inmate.

“We spoke to the prisoners and they grumble, of course, of the awful food,” added the senator.

Allies Voice Concerns

He is not the lone figure expressing views ahead of the ex-leader's anticipated detention.

Writing in a leading daily, another ally, the former cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “severe” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” public service and claimed Brazil was about to witness “the largest political injustice in its past”.

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

Mixed Popular Reaction

It is possibly accurate given the significant support Bolsonaro maintains on the right-wing. But his expected jailing has also gladdened the hearts of many others who feel he deserves to be incarcerated for conspiring to block the incoming president from assuming office – and even plotting to have him killed.

Congressman Otoni, a congressman for the incumbent administration's allied group, stated: “Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be placed in a dark cell. No one wants Bolsonaro to be placed in isolation. No one desires Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We desire him to receive dignified care – but respectful treatment in prison. He cannot carry on being his personal jailer for his whole life.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro supporters, who have spent years praising the tough conditions of convicts, had unexpectedly woken up to their entitlements. “Recently has the conservative fringe – which has consistently argued that civil liberties should not be for lawbreakers – opted to visit a prison to discover what situations are actually like,” he stated.

“Bolsonaro is a criminal,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he deserved “degrading, degrading handling”.

Likely Prison Environment

Regardless of speculation that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which now houses about thousands of prisoners, his expected destination appears to be a nearby prison for law enforcement and other “special” prisoners called Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

His potential cell are much more pleasant than those in the primary facility, although still a far cry from the comfort Bolsonaro had while occupying the impressive official residence, around a short distance away.

As per reports, the accommodation Bolsonaro could anticipate reside in in Papudinha is about 260 square feet – roughly the area of a couple of car spots – and contains a 12 sq metre bathroom with a shower and a 12 sq metre terrace. “He could be permitted to have a television and also a minibar in his quarters as long as they were supplied by his loved ones,” information suggested.

Partisan Responses

Senator Lucas denounced the speculated plan to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “a type of retaliation” on the part of the supreme court judge who oversaw Bolsonaro’s legal case and will determine his outcome in the {