Prison Surprise: Brazil's Ex-President Bolsonaro Faces Life in Prison
He fought the legal system and the law won.
Two months subsequent to being handed a quarter-century plus sentence for seeking to “annihilate” Brazil’s political system, former president Jair Bolsonaro at last appears destined for incarceration.
Imminent Jailing
The adjudicated plotter – who's been living under house arrest in his residence while a set of court processes and challenges play out – is widely expected to be jailed in the coming days, amid growing rumors that he will be transferred to a well-known maximum security facility.
Previous Statements on Convicts
Throughout Bolsonaro’s four-decade political career, the right-wing ex- soldier exhibited minimal sympathy for Brazil’s jailed individuals.
“What’s the need to provide these lowlifes a comfortable existence?” he once pondered. “They ought to simply be screwed, end of story. That's my opinion.”
In another instance, Bolsonaro declared: “If you don’t want to finish behind bars, you simply need is to avoid rape, kidnap or rob.”
Jail Location Debate
However the possibility of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda high-security prison in Brasília has horrified backers, a group of four this week visited the prison in an seeming attempt to discourage the high court from sending him there.
The senator, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was one of the visitors, said he expected the elderly figure to be jailed in the coming fortnight and worried his assigned prison could be Papuda.
The senator argued Bolsonaro’s severe gut issues – the outcome of a almost deadly stabbing during the last presidential campaign – implied it would be hazardous to keep the former president there. “His health is very grave. 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 prison meals.
During his tour Papuda, Lucas noted seeing cells accommodating four dozen prisoners: “That is virtually one meter squared per inmate.
“We talked to the inmates and they protest, of course, of the horrible meals,” remarked the senator.
Supporters Voice Concerns
He is not the only voice voicing opinions prior to the one-time head of state's anticipated imprisonment.
Authoring in a major newspaper, another ally, the ex- communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “brutal” end to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” public service and claimed Brazil was about to experience “the biggest political injustice in its record”.
“It is an unfairness that eats away the hearts of many of Brazilians,” the former minister said.
Mixed Popular Reaction
That may be true due to the substantial backing Bolsonaro holds on the Brazilian right. However his anticipated incarceration has also warmed the hearts of many individuals who think he should be imprisoned for planning to block his successor from taking power – and additionally plotting to have him murdered.
The lawmaker, a congressman for the current leader's allied group, stated: “Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be sent in a dungeon. Nobody desires Bolsonaro to be put in solitary confinement. No one wants Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to lie on concrete. We wish him to receive proper treatment – but proper treatment in prison. He cannot carry on being his own prison warden for his entire life.”
He observed how Bolsonaro allies, who have for a long time praising the severe conditions of convicts, had suddenly woken up to their entitlements. “Just now has the far-right – which has repeatedly asserted that human rights were not for lawbreakers – opted to visit a prison to discover what circumstances are truly like,” he said.
“He is a criminal,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he earned “shameful, insulting treatment”.
Likely Prison Environment
Regardless of talk that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which now houses about fourteen thousand inmates, his more likely destination seems to be a close prison for officers and other “particular” detainees referred to as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).
Its cells are considerably more adequate than those in the main prison, although nevertheless a world away from the opulence Bolsonaro experienced while living in the impressive official residence, about 20 kilometers away.
Based on reports, the accommodation Bolsonaro could likely reside in in Papudinha has about 24 sq metres – approximately the size of two parking spaces – and features a 12 square meter WC with a shower and a 130 square foot terrace. “Bolsonaro would be permitted to have a set and additionally a cooler in his room as long as they were donated by his loved ones,” information suggested.
Partisan Reactions
Senator Lucas denounced the rumoured idea to send the ex-president to Papuda as “an act of revenge” on the part of the supreme court judge who presided over Bolsonaro’s proceedings and will rule on his outcome in the {