🔗 Share this article

He fought the legal system and justice prevailed.

Sixty days after getting a 27-year sentence for attempting to “destroy” the nation's democracy, former president Jair Bolsonaro finally appears headed to prison.

Anticipated Jailing

The convicted coup-monger – who's been under home confinement in his mansion while a series of legal procedures and challenges play out – is widely expected to be incarcerated in the coming days, amid growing talk that he will be sent to a infamous top-security facility.

Previous Comments on Convicts

Over Bolsonaro’s long time in politics, the far-right ex- soldier displayed minimal compassion for the country's prison population.

“For what reason must we give those scoundrels a good life?” he once pondered. “They should just get messed, end of story. That's my opinion.”

At another time, Bolsonaro declared: “If you don’t want to end up behind bars, you simply need is to avoid rape, kidnap or rob.”

Jail Location Debate

But the idea of Bolsonaro himself landing in the Papuda high-security prison in Brasília has shocked allies, four of whom this week toured the facility in an apparent attempt to prevent the judiciary from sending him there.

Izalci Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s political party who was one of the visitors, said he expected the elderly figure to be imprisoned in the following week and a half and was concerned his location could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s serious digestive problems – the outcome of a life-threatening stabbing during the 2018 presidential presidential campaign – meant it would be dangerous to keep the ex-leader there. “His health is extremely serious. He won’t be able to manage if they move him to Papuda … It will be awful,” said the senator, who also voiced anxiety about overcrowded cells and the condition of jail cuisine.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas noted observing cells containing forty detainees: “It's almost one square metre per prisoner.

“We conversed to the convicts and they complain, unsurprisingly, of the awful food,” remarked the senator.

Supporters Speak Out

Lucas is not the sole person voicing opinions before the former president’s predicted detention.

Penning in a major daily, one more backer, the ex- cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “severe” end to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” political career and asserted Brazil was about to see “the largest wrong in its past”.

“This is an injustice that erodes the hearts of millions Brazilian citizens,” the former minister said.

Mixed Public Response

That may be accurate considering the significant backing Bolsonaro holds on the right-wing. But his anticipated jailing has also pleased the feelings of numerous other people who think he deserves to be imprisoned for plotting to block the elected leader from assuming office – and even plotting to have him killed.

Reimont Otoni, a congressman for the sitting administration's allied group, stated: “Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be placed in a dark cell. Not a soul desires Bolsonaro to be sent in isolation. Nobody desires Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to lie on concrete. We desire him to get proper care – but respectful care in prison. He can’t continue being his personal jailer for his whole life.”

He observed how Bolsonaro supporters, who have long applauding the severe conditions of convicts, had abruptly realized to their rights. “Recently has the extreme right – which has always argued that human rights were not for criminals – chosen to visit a penitentiary to discover what circumstances are truly like,” he remarked.

“He is a offender,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he earned “shameful, degrading conduct”.

Likely Incarceration Facilities

Regardless of rumors that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which currently houses about thousands of detainees, his probable assigned facility looks to be a adjacent prison for police officers and other “unique” inmates known as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

The accommodations are considerably more pleasant than those in the larger jail, although still a distant from the luxury Bolsonaro enjoyed while occupying the stunning leader's home, approximately a short distance away.

Based on sources, the accommodation Bolsonaro could expect to occupy in Papudinha measures about 260 square feet – approximately the size of vehicle spaces – and includes a 130 square foot restroom with a water facility and a 130 square foot veranda. “The ex-president might be authorized to have a television and additionally a cooler in his room as long as they were supplied by his family,” sources suggested.

Ideological Comments

Senator Lucas denounced the speculated plan to send the ex-president to Papuda as “an act of revenge” on the part of the supreme court judge who oversaw Bolsonaro’s legal case and will rule on his outcome in the {