🔗 Share this article

He battled the law and justice prevailed.

Two months after being handed a 27-year sentence for trying to “destroy” the nation's democracy, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro at last seems headed to prison.

Expected Incarceration

The adjudicated plotter – who had been subject to residential detention in his mansion while a set of judicial steps and petitions play out – is broadly anticipated to be jailed in the next few days, during mounting speculation that he will be sent to a well-known top-security prison.

Past Comments on Prisoners

Over Bolsonaro’s long public life, the right-wing former soldier displayed minimal compassion for the country's prison population.

“What’s the need to offer these lowlifes a easy time?” he previously wondered. “They ought to simply be screwed, period. That's my view.”

At another time, Bolsonaro declared: “Should you not wish to wind up behind bars, you simply need is not sexual assault, kidnap or theft.”

Incarceration Location Speculation

But the possibility of Bolsonaro himself landing in the Papuda prison high-security prison in Brasília has horrified allies, a group of four this week inspected the facility in an seeming effort to dissuade the high court from transferring him there.

Senator Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was among that group, said he anticipated the 70-year-old politician to be jailed in the next 10 days and feared his location could be Papuda.

He asserted Bolsonaro’s acute gut issues – the result of a life-threatening assault during the 2018 presidential political campaign – meant it would be risky to keep the former president there. “His health is highly critical. 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 overcrowded cells and the condition of jail cuisine.

When inspecting Papuda, Lucas remembered observing cells accommodating four dozen detainees: “That is virtually one meter squared per prisoner.

“We conversed to the prisoners and they grumble, unsurprisingly, of the awful cuisine,” added the senator.

Allies Voice Concerns

Lucas is not the lone figure expressing views before the former president’s predicted imprisonment.

Writing in a major publication, another ally, the ex- government official Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “harsh” finale to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” time in office and asserted Brazil was about to see “the greatest unfairness in its record”.

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

Varied Popular Reaction

This could be correct given the significant backing Bolsonaro retains on the Brazilian right. However his predicted jailing has also warmed the feelings of millions other people who think he should be jailed for conspiring to block his successor from taking power – and additionally scheming to have him assassinated.

Reimont Otoni, a politician for the sitting president's political party, commented: “Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be put in a hole. Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to be placed in solitary confinement. Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to lie on concrete. We wish him to receive dignified treatment – but respectful treatment while incarcerated. He cannot carry on being his own prison warden for his entire life.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro allies, who have for a long time applauding the harsh handling of prisoners, had unexpectedly woken up to their rights. “Just now has the far-right – which has repeatedly argued that human rights should not be for lawbreakers – opted to visit a prison to learn what situations are truly like,” he remarked.

“Bolsonaro is a criminal,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he deserved “shameful, degrading handling”.

Potential Incarceration Environment

Despite speculation that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which now holds about fourteen thousand detainees, his expected destination seems to be a adjacent prison for officers and other “particular” prisoners referred to as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

Its cells are much more adequate than those in the main prison, although nevertheless a world away from the opulence Bolsonaro experienced while residing in the spectacular leader's home, approximately 12 miles away.

Based on sources, the cell Bolsonaro could anticipate occupy in Papudinha measures about 24 sq metres – approximately the dimensions of a couple of car spots – and contains a 12 sq metre bathroom with a bathing area and a 12 square meter terrace. “He could be permitted to have a set and even a small fridge in his cell as long as they were supplied by his loved ones,” sources stated.

Partisan Comments

The lawmaker criticized the talked-about plan to send the former leader to Papuda as “a form of revenge” on the part of the presiding magistrate who oversaw Bolsonaro’s proceedings and will rule on his outcome in the {