Jailhouse Surprise: The Ex-President Jair Bolsonaro Faces Life Behind Bars
He contested justice and the law triumphed.
Sixty days following receiving a 27-year sentence for seeking to “annihilate” the nation's democracy, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro now seems headed to prison.
Imminent Jailing
The adjudicated coup-monger – who has been subject to residential detention in his mansion while a number of judicial steps and challenges play out – is widely expected to be jailed in the next few days, during mounting rumors that he will be transferred to a notorious maximum security facility.
Previous Remarks on Prisoners
Over Bolsonaro’s 40-year time in politics, the right-wing former military man showed little mercy for the country's inmates.
“What’s the need to give those lowlifes a easy time?” he once mused. “They should just get messed, period. That's my opinion.”
On another occasion, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “If you don’t want to finish there, you simply need is not sexual assault, kidnap or theft.”
Incarceration Location Discussion
However the possibility of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda prison high-security prison in Brasília has shocked allies, a group of four this week visited the facility in an obvious effort to prevent the high court from sending him there.
The senator, a senator from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was one of the visitors, said he predicted the septuagenarian leader to be imprisoned in the coming fortnight and feared his destination could be Papuda.
Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s severe digestive ailments – the consequence of a near-fatal assault during the 2018 presidential political campaign – implied it would be hazardous to keep the one-time head of state there. “His condition is very grave. He won’t be able to manage if they send him to Papuda … It would be awful,” he commented, who also worried about overcrowded cells and the quality of inmate food.
While visiting Papuda, Lucas remembered seeing cells accommodating 40 inmates: “That is almost one meter squared per detainee.
“We talked to the inmates and they grumble, naturally, of the horrible cuisine,” continued the senator.
Supporters Speak Out
He is not the only voice voicing opinions ahead of the former president’s predicted imprisonment.
Writing in a prominent daily, another ally, the former cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “severe” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” time in office and alleged Brazil was about to experience “the largest political injustice in its record”.
“It is an injustice that gnaws the spirits of countless people in Brazil,” he stated.
Varied Popular Reaction
That may be true given the substantial backing Bolsonaro retains on the conservative side. Yet his anticipated incarceration has also pleased the spirits of numerous others who think he ought to be imprisoned for planning to stop his successor from assuming office – and also plotting to have him murdered.
The lawmaker, a politician for the current president's allied group, stated: “No one desires Bolsonaro to be sent in a dungeon. Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be sent in segregation. Nobody wants Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to lie on concrete. We wish him to receive dignified handling – but proper care behind bars. He cannot continue being his self-appointed guard for his lifetime.”
The congressman noted how Bolsonaro supporters, who have spent years celebrating the tough treatment of convicts, had unexpectedly realized to their rights. “Just now has the extreme right – which has always asserted that human rights are not for lawbreakers – opted to inspect a prison to discover what situations are actually like,” he remarked.
“Bolsonaro is a criminal,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he deserved “humiliating, degrading conduct”.
Possible Jail Facilities
Despite speculation that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which currently holds about thousands of inmates, his probable location appears to be a close prison for officers and other “unique” inmates called Papudinha (Minor Papuda).
The accommodations are considerably more pleasant than those in the larger jail, although still a world away from the luxury Bolsonaro experienced while living in the impressive presidential palace, approximately 20 kilometers away.
As per information, the room Bolsonaro could anticipate inhabit in Papudinha has about 24 sq metres – about the dimensions of vehicle spaces – and includes a 12 square meter bathroom with a shower and a 12 square meter terrace. “Bolsonaro would be allowed to have a television and even a minibar in his room as long as they were supplied by his family,” information indicated.
Ideological Reactions
He criticized the speculated idea to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “an act of revenge” on the part of the judicial authority who presided over Bolsonaro’s legal case and will decide his future in the {