Jailhouse Surprise: Brazil's Ex-President Bolsonaro Faces Time Behind Bars

He fought the law and the legal system prevailed.

Sixty days subsequent to being handed a twenty-seven-year sentence for seeking to “annihilate” Brazil’s political system, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro now seems destined for incarceration.

Expected Imprisonment

The convicted coup-monger – who has been living under house arrest in his mansion while a series of court processes and challenges play out – is largely predicted to be imprisoned in the next few days, during increasing rumors that he will be transferred to a infamous high-security prison.

Past Remarks on Inmates

During Bolsonaro’s long political career, the right-wing ex- soldier displayed little compassion for Brazil’s inmates.

“For what reason must we provide these scoundrels a comfortable existence?” he once mused. “They should just get screwed, end of story. That's my view.”

In another instance, Bolsonaro declared: “If you don’t want to wind up there, you simply need is to avoid rape, kidnap or rob.”

Incarceration Location Debate

However the idea of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda top-security prison in Brasília has shocked allies, four of whom this week toured the complex in an seeming bid to discourage the judiciary from banishing him there.

Izalci Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s political party who was among that group, said he predicted the 70-year-old leader to be jailed in the coming fortnight and worried his destination could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s acute intestinal problems – the result of a near-fatal knife attack during the 2018 election race – implied it would be dangerous to keep the former president there. “His health is highly critical. He won’t be able to cope if they take him to Papuda … It would be dreadful,” said the senator, who also voiced anxiety about cramped cells and the standard of jail cuisine.

During his tour Papuda, Lucas recalled observing cells accommodating four dozen detainees: “That’s practically one square meter per prisoner.

“We conversed to the convicts and they complain, naturally, of the horrible meals,” continued the senator.

Supporters React

He is not the lone figure speaking out before the former president’s predicted detention.

Penning in a leading publication, a different supporter, the former cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “brutal” end to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” public service and alleged Brazil was about to experience “the largest unfairness in its past”.

“This is an injustice that erodes the souls of millions people in Brazil,” he stated.

Mixed Popular Response

It is possibly true given the considerable backing Bolsonaro retains on the Brazilian right. However his predicted imprisonment has also warmed the hearts of numerous other people who think he ought to be jailed for plotting to block his successor from taking power – and even conspiring to have him murdered.

Reimont Otoni, a politician for the current leader's Workers’ party, said: “Nobody desires Bolsonaro to be placed in a dark cell. No one desires Bolsonaro to be put in solitary confinement. No one wishes Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to lie on concrete. We want him to get respectful handling – but proper handling while incarcerated. He must not carry on being his self-appointed guard for his whole life.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro supporters, who have long celebrating the severe treatment of convicts, had unexpectedly become aware to their entitlements. “Just now has the far-right – which has consistently argued that basic rights are not for criminals – decided to inspect a prison to learn what situations are really like,” he remarked.

“The former president is a lawbreaker,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he earned “humiliating, degrading treatment”.

Likely Jail Conditions

Regardless of speculation that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which currently holds about 14,000 prisoners, his expected destination seems to be a nearby penitentiary for police officers and other “unique” inmates referred to as Papudinha (Little Papuda).

The accommodations are considerably more adequate than those in the main prison, although still a far cry from the luxury Bolsonaro had while living in the stunning official residence, approximately 20 kilometers away.

As per reports, the cell Bolsonaro could anticipate reside in in Papudinha has about 24 square meters – approximately the dimensions of a couple of car spots – and features a 12 square meter restroom with a bathing area and a 130 square foot balcony. “Bolsonaro would be allowed to have a set and even a small fridge in his quarters as long as they were donated by his relatives,” the report stated.

Ideological Reactions

He criticized the rumoured plan to send the former leader to Papuda as “an act of retaliation” on the part of the judicial authority who presided over Bolsonaro’s legal case and will rule on his future in the {