🔗 Share this article

He contested the law and the legal system prevailed.

Sixty days subsequent to being handed a quarter-century plus sentence for attempting to “eradicate” the nation's democracy, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro finally looks destined for incarceration.

Expected Jailing

The adjudicated plotter – who has been subject to residential detention in his residence while a series of judicial steps and petitions play out – is broadly anticipated to be incarcerated in the coming days, during mounting talk that he will be transferred to a infamous top-security penitentiary.

Past Comments on Convicts

Over Bolsonaro’s four-decade time in politics, the conservative ex- paratrooper showed scant compassion for the country's jailed individuals.

“What’s the need to provide these dirtbags a easy time?” he once pondered. “They deserve to be fucked, end of story. That’s what I reckon.”

On another occasion, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “Unless you desire to wind up in prison, all you have to do is to avoid sexual assault, kidnap or theft.”

Prison Facility Discussion

Yet the possibility of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda prison maximum security prison in Brasília has horrified backers, four of whom this week inspected the complex in an apparent bid to dissuade the supreme court from sending him there.

Izalci Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s political party who was among that group, claimed he expected the septuagenarian leader to be imprisoned in the next 10 days and feared his destination could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s acute intestinal ailments – the result of a almost deadly assault during the last election race – meant it would be risky to keep the ex-leader there. “His condition is highly critical. He cannot to manage if they send him to Papuda … It could be dreadful,” said the senator, who also worried about packed cells and the condition of prison meals.

When inspecting Papuda, Lucas remembered witnessing cells holding 40 inmates: “It's almost one square meter per detainee.

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

Supporters Voice Concerns

He is not the sole person voicing opinions prior to the one-time head of state's anticipated detention.

Authoring in a leading publication, one more backer, the ex- cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “severe” end to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” political career and claimed Brazil was about to experience “the greatest unfairness in its past”.

“This is an injustice that gnaws the hearts of countless of Brazilians,” the former minister said.

Mixed Public Opinion

This could be accurate considering the substantial backing Bolsonaro retains on the conservative side. Yet his predicted imprisonment has also pleased the hearts of millions other people who think he should be jailed for plotting to stop the incoming president from taking power – and even scheming to have him murdered.

The lawmaker, a congressman for the current president's allied group, said: “No one wishes Bolsonaro to be placed in a dark cell. Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be sent in isolation. Nobody wants Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to lie on concrete. We want him to obtain dignified treatment – but dignified handling while incarcerated. He can’t carry on being his self-appointed guard for his entire life.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro backers, who have long applauding the severe treatment of convicts, had unexpectedly become aware to their privileges. “Only now has the far-right – which has always argued that civil liberties were not for offenders – chosen to inspect a prison to learn what circumstances are truly like,” he stated.

“He is a criminal,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he merited “shameful, demeaning conduct”.

Potential Incarceration Conditions

Despite rumors that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which currently holds about 14,000 detainees, his probable assigned facility appears to be a nearby prison for officers and other “unique” detainees called Papudinha (Little Papuda).

Its cells are considerably more pleasant than those in the larger jail, although still a world away from the luxury Bolsonaro had while residing in the stunning presidential palace, approximately a short distance away.

As per reports, the room Bolsonaro could likely occupy in Papudinha is about 24 sq metres – roughly the area of vehicle spaces – and includes a 12 sq metre bathroom with a shower and a 130 square foot balcony. “He could be authorized to have a television and even a minibar in his room as long as they were supplied by his family,” information suggested.

Political Reactions

Senator Lucas denounced the rumoured 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 rule on his outcome in the {