🔗 Share this article

He contested justice and the law prevailed.

Two months after being handed a twenty-seven-year sentence for trying to “annihilate” Brazil’s democracy, former president Jair Bolsonaro now appears headed to prison.

Expected Imprisonment

The found-guilty coup-monger – who's been living under house arrest in his mansion while a set of legal procedures and challenges proceed – is largely predicted to be imprisoned in the coming days, amidst growing talk that he will be transferred to a infamous top-security prison.

Past Remarks on Prisoners

Over Bolsonaro’s four-decade time in politics, the far-right ex- paratrooper exhibited little compassion for Brazil’s inmates.

“For what reason must we give those dirtbags a easy time?” he previously wondered. “They deserve to be fucked, full-fucking-stop. That’s what I reckon.”

In another instance, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “If you don’t want to end up in prison, the only thing required is not rape, abduction or rob.”

Incarceration Location Debate

Yet the idea of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda maximum security prison in Brasília has horrified supporters, several of whom this week toured the facility in an obvious attempt to dissuade the supreme court from transferring him there.

Senator Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s political party who was among that group, stated he predicted the septuagenarian leader to be jailed in the following week and a half and feared his location could be Papuda.

The senator argued Bolsonaro’s severe digestive problems – the result of a near-fatal stabbing during the 2018 presidential political campaign – implied it would be hazardous to keep the former president there. “His [health] situation is very grave. He cannot to cope if they send him to Papuda … It could be dreadful,” said the senator, who also expressed concern about packed cells and the standard of prison meals.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas remembered seeing cells holding forty inmates: “That is practically one square meter per detainee.

“We talked to the inmates and they protest, naturally, of the horrible food,” remarked the senator.

Allies Voice Concerns

Lucas is not the only voice voicing opinions ahead of the ex-leader's predicted detention.

Writing in a prominent newspaper, another ally, the ex- communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “harsh” finale to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” time in office and asserted Brazil was about to experience “the biggest political injustice in its history”.

“It represents an unfairness that eats away the spirits of countless Brazilian citizens,” he stated.

Varied Popular Response

This could be correct considering the substantial support Bolsonaro retains on the right-wing. But his expected incarceration has also gladdened the feelings of numerous other people who believe he deserves to be imprisoned for planning to prevent the elected leader from assuming office – and even conspiring to have him killed.

Reimont Otoni, a representative for the incumbent administration's Workers’ party, said: “Not a soul desires Bolsonaro to be put in a dungeon. No one wishes Bolsonaro to be placed in solitary confinement. Nobody wishes Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We desire him to obtain dignified treatment – but respectful care while incarcerated. He cannot carry on being his self-appointed guard for his entire life.”

The congressman noted how Bolsonaro supporters, who have for a long time applauding the tough conditions of prisoners, had suddenly woken up to their entitlements. “Just now has the far-right – which has repeatedly claimed that basic rights are not for criminals – chosen to visit a prison to find out what situations are truly like,” he stated.

“He is a offender,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he merited “humiliating, degrading treatment”.

Possible Jail Facilities

In spite of speculation that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which presently contains about 14,000 inmates, his more likely destination seems to be a nearby jail for officers and other “particular” inmates called Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

The accommodations are far more comfortable than those in the main prison, although nonetheless a distant from the comfort Bolsonaro enjoyed while occupying the spectacular official residence, about a short distance away.

As per reports, the accommodation Bolsonaro could anticipate inhabit in Papudinha measures about 24 sq metres – about the area of two parking spaces – and features a 12 square meter bathroom with a bathing area and a 12 sq metre veranda. “He could be permitted to have a television and even a small fridge in his room as long as they were donated by his family,” information suggested.

Political Reactions

He denounced the rumoured plan to send the former leader to Papuda as “a form of revenge” on the part of the presiding magistrate who oversaw Bolsonaro’s coup trial and will decide his outcome in the {