🔗 Share this article

He contested justice and the legal system prevailed.

Sixty days after getting a 27-year sentence for attempting to “annihilate” Brazil’s democratic institutions, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro now appears destined for incarceration.

Expected Jailing

The adjudicated instigator – who's been living under residential detention in his estate while a series of legal procedures and appeals unfold – is largely predicted to be incarcerated in the coming days, amidst mounting rumors that he will be transferred to a notorious top-security penitentiary.

Past Statements on Convicts

Over Bolsonaro’s 40-year public life, the conservative ex- soldier showed scant mercy for Brazil’s inmates.

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

At another time, Bolsonaro declared: “If you don’t want to end up in prison, all you have to do is to avoid rape, abduction or rob.”

Jail Destination Debate

Yet the possibility of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda prison high-security prison in Brasília has horrified backers, a group of four this week toured the complex in an apparent attempt to dissuade the judiciary from transferring him there.

Izalci Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was part of that quartet, claimed he anticipated the septuagenarian politician to be incarcerated in the following week and a half and feared his assigned prison could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s serious intestinal issues – the result of a near-fatal assault during the last presidential campaign – implied it would be dangerous to keep the one-time head of state there. “His [health] situation is highly critical. He will not be able to handle it if they take him to Papuda … It could be terrible,” said the senator, who also expressed concern about packed cells and the standard of jail cuisine.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas noted seeing cells containing 40 inmates: “That’s almost one meter squared per detainee.

“We conversed to the inmates and they protest, of course, of the terrible cuisine,” added the senator.

Allies React

Lucas is not the lone figure speaking out before the former president’s expected detention.

Authoring in a leading newspaper, a different supporter, the ex- cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “severe” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” time in office and asserted Brazil was about to witness “the largest political injustice in its history”.

“It is an injustice that gnaws the souls of millions Brazilian citizens,” Wajngarten wrote.

Mixed Popular Reaction

It is possibly correct considering the significant support Bolsonaro retains on the Brazilian right. However his expected imprisonment has also warmed the hearts of numerous individuals who think he ought to be jailed for planning to block his successor from becoming president – and additionally scheming to have him assassinated.

The lawmaker, a representative for the incumbent president's allied group, said: “No one wants Bolsonaro to be placed in a hole. No one wishes Bolsonaro to be sent in segregation. Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We wish him to get dignified handling – but dignified care behind bars. He cannot continue being his own prison warden for his whole life.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro backers, who have spent years praising the harsh handling of inmates, had abruptly realized to their privileges. “Just now has the far-right – which has always argued that civil liberties should not be for criminals – opted to visit a jail to learn what circumstances are actually like,” he said.

“He is a criminal,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he earned “shameful, demeaning treatment”.

Likely Incarceration Environment

In spite of rumors that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which currently holds about fourteen thousand inmates, his more likely assigned facility seems to be a close jail for officers and other “unique” inmates referred to as Papudinha (Small Papuda).

The accommodations are considerably more pleasant than those in the larger jail, although nevertheless a world away from the comfort Bolsonaro enjoyed while living in the stunning presidential palace, around 20 kilometers away.

Based on reports, the room Bolsonaro could anticipate occupy in Papudinha has about 260 square feet – approximately the dimensions of a couple of car spots – and includes a 130 square foot bathroom with a bathing area and a 12 sq metre veranda. “He could be authorized to have a television and also a minibar in his cell as long as they were supplied by his family,” the report indicated.

Ideological Reactions

Senator Lucas criticized the rumoured plan to send the former leader to Papuda as “a form of payback” on the part of the presiding magistrate who presided over Bolsonaro’s legal case and will rule on his outcome in the {