Jailhouse Surprise: Brazil's Ex-President Bolsonaro Faces Time in Prison
He contested the legal system and the legal system triumphed.
Sixty days following getting a quarter-century plus sentence for attempting to “destroy” the nation's democratic institutions, former president Jair Bolsonaro now seems destined for incarceration.
Anticipated Imprisonment
The found-guilty coup-monger – who had been under home confinement in his residence while a set of judicial steps and challenges unfold – is largely predicted to be jailed in the coming days, during growing speculation that he will be transferred to a infamous high-security prison.
Previous Statements on Convicts
Over Bolsonaro’s long time in politics, the right-wing former military man showed minimal mercy for the country's prison population.
“Why should we give those lowlifes a good life?” he once pondered. “They ought to simply be screwed, period. That’s what I reckon.”
At another time, Bolsonaro stated: “Unless you desire to end up there, all you have to do is not sexual assault, kidnap or rob.”
Incarceration Location Speculation
But the idea of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda prison high-security prison in Brasília has shocked backers, four of whom this week visited the prison in an apparent bid to prevent the high court from banishing him there.
Izalci Lucas, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was one of the visitors, said he expected the septuagenarian politician to be imprisoned in the coming fortnight and was concerned his destination could be Papuda.
Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s severe digestive ailments – the result of a near-fatal assault during the last political campaign – meant it would be risky to keep the one-time head of state there. “His [health] situation is highly critical. He won’t be able to handle it if they take him to Papuda … It will be terrible,” said the senator, who also expressed concern about overcrowded cells and the standard of inmate food.
While visiting Papuda, Lucas remembered observing cells accommodating forty detainees: “That’s practically one meter squared per prisoner.
“We talked to the inmates and they protest, of course, of the terrible meals,” continued the senator.
Backers Voice Concerns
The senator isn't the sole person voicing opinions ahead of the ex-leader's anticipated imprisonment.
Penning in a major publication, one more backer, the ex- cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “severe” finale to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” political career and asserted Brazil was about to witness “the largest unfairness in its record”.
“This is an injustice that gnaws the spirits of millions of Brazilians,” he stated.
Varied General Opinion
This could be correct due to the substantial following Bolsonaro retains on the Brazilian right. But his anticipated incarceration has also warmed the feelings of many others who feel he ought to be imprisoned for conspiring to stop his successor from taking power – and additionally conspiring to have him killed.
The lawmaker, a congressman for the sitting president's allied group, commented: “Nobody desires Bolsonaro to be placed in a dungeon. Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be put in isolation. Nobody desires Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to lie on concrete. We want him to obtain respectful care – but proper care while incarcerated. He must not persist being his personal jailer for his whole life.”
The congressman noted how Bolsonaro supporters, who have long applauding the severe conditions of prisoners, had abruptly become aware to their privileges. “Only now has the extreme right – which has always claimed that civil liberties should not be for criminals – opted to visit a penitentiary to discover what conditions are really like,” he stated.
“He is a lawbreaker,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he deserved “humiliating, degrading conduct”.
Likely Incarceration Conditions
Regardless of rumors that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which now contains about 14,000 detainees, his expected destination seems to be a adjacent jail for police officers and other “unique” prisoners referred to as Papudinha (Little Papuda).
Its cells are considerably more adequate than those in the main prison, although nevertheless a distant from the comfort Bolsonaro had while occupying the impressive presidential palace, about 12 miles away.
Based on sources, the room Bolsonaro could likely reside in in Papudinha is about 24 square meters – about the area of a couple of car spots – and contains a 130 square foot bathroom with a bathing area and a 12 sq metre balcony. “The ex-president might be permitted to have a television and even a small fridge in his quarters as long as they were supplied by his relatives,” the report stated.
Ideological Responses
He condemned the rumoured idea to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “an act of retaliation” on the part of the supreme court judge who led Bolsonaro’s legal case and will rule on his fate in the {