🔗 Share this article

He fought the law and justice prevailed.

A couple of months following receiving a twenty-seven-year sentence for attempting to “annihilate” Brazil’s democracy, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro now looks destined for incarceration.

Expected Incarceration

The found-guilty plotter – who has been under residential detention in his residence while a set of court processes and petitions proceed – is broadly anticipated to be incarcerated in the coming days, during increasing speculation that he will be sent to a notorious high-security prison.

Past Statements on Prisoners

Over Bolsonaro’s long public life, the far-right ex- military man exhibited little compassion for Brazil’s prison population.

“For what reason must we give those lowlifes a comfortable existence?” he once pondered. “They should just get screwed, end of story. That's my opinion.”

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

Prison Location Speculation

However the idea of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda top-security prison in Brasília has appalled allies, a group of four this week toured the complex in an apparent attempt to prevent the supreme court from transferring him there.

Senator Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s political party who was one of the visitors, claimed he predicted the 70-year-old politician to be imprisoned in the following week and a half and was concerned his assigned prison could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s severe gut issues – the result of a near-fatal knife attack during the last presidential campaign – meant it would be risky to keep the ex-leader there. “His condition is highly critical. He will not be able to handle it if they take him to Papuda … It will be dreadful,” said the senator, who also voiced anxiety about cramped cells and the quality of prison meals.

During his tour Papuda, Lucas recalled observing cells accommodating forty prisoners: “That’s practically one square meter per detainee.

“We spoke to the convicts and they grumble, of course, of the awful meals,” remarked the senator.

Backers Speak Out

Lucas is not the sole person expressing views before the ex-leader's anticipated detention.

Writing in a prominent publication, a different supporter, the former government official Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “brutal” end to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” political career and asserted Brazil was about to see “the largest wrong in its past”.

“It is an injustice that gnaws the hearts of countless of Brazilians,” he stated.

Mixed Popular Response

That may be true given the considerable support Bolsonaro retains on the Brazilian right. However his anticipated imprisonment has also gladdened the feelings of numerous other people who believe he deserves to be jailed for plotting to block his successor from assuming office – and also plotting to have him killed.

Reimont Otoni, a congressman for the sitting president's political party, said: “Not a soul desires Bolsonaro to be put in a hole. No one wishes Bolsonaro to be placed in solitary confinement. Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to lie on concrete. We desire him to get proper care – but respectful care behind bars. He can’t carry on being his personal jailer for his whole life.”

He observed how Bolsonaro supporters, who have for a long time celebrating the severe handling of prisoners, had suddenly realized to their privileges. “Only now has the conservative fringe – which has always claimed that basic rights were not for offenders – decided to tour a prison to learn what circumstances are really like,” he said.

“Bolsonaro is a lawbreaker,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he deserved “shameful, demeaning treatment”.

Likely Incarceration Conditions

Despite talk that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which now holds about 14,000 inmates, his more likely assigned facility looks to be a close prison for police officers and other “special” prisoners called Papudinha (Small Papuda).

The accommodations are far more adequate than those in the main prison, although nevertheless a distant from the opulence Bolsonaro had while occupying the spectacular presidential palace, approximately a short distance away.

Based on sources, the cell Bolsonaro could expect to occupy in Papudinha has about 260 square feet – approximately the dimensions of a couple of car spots – and contains a 130 square foot WC with a water facility and a 130 square foot veranda. “Bolsonaro would be authorized to have a television and even a cooler in his quarters as long as they were donated by his loved ones,” the report stated.

Partisan Responses

Senator Lucas criticized the rumoured idea to send the ex-president to Papuda as “a form of retaliation” on the part of the supreme court judge who oversaw Bolsonaro’s legal case and will determine his future in the {