Prison Surprise: Brazil's Ex-President Bolsonaro Confronts Life in Prison
He contested the law and justice triumphed.
Sixty days after receiving a quarter-century plus sentence for seeking to “eradicate” the nation's political system, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro now appears headed to prison.
Imminent Jailing
The found-guilty plotter – who had been under home confinement in his mansion while a set of legal procedures and appeals play out – is widely expected to be incarcerated in the coming days, amidst growing speculation that he will be sent to a infamous maximum security penitentiary.
Previous Statements on Prisoners
Throughout Bolsonaro’s 40-year public life, the far-right former paratrooper displayed scant sympathy for the country's prison population.
“Why should we give these dirtbags a good life?” he once pondered. “They ought to simply be messed, end of story. That’s what I reckon.”
On another occasion, Bolsonaro stated: “Should you not wish to finish there, all you have to do is not sexual assault, kidnap or rob.”
Incarceration Location Speculation
Yet the prospect of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda top-security prison in Brasília has shocked backers, a group of four this week toured the complex in an seeming effort to prevent the judiciary from banishing him there.
Izalci Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s political party who was one of the visitors, said he anticipated the 70-year-old leader to be jailed in the coming fortnight and worried his assigned prison could be Papuda.
Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s severe digestive ailments – the consequence of a almost deadly stabbing during the 2018 presidential presidential campaign – meant it would be dangerous to keep the one-time head of state there. “His health is extremely serious. He won’t be able to manage if they send him to Papuda … It will be awful,” he added, who also worried about cramped cells and the standard of inmate food.
During his tour Papuda, Lucas noted witnessing cells containing 40 inmates: “That is practically one square metre per detainee.
“We spoke to the prisoners and they grumble, of course, of the awful meals,” added the senator.
Supporters Speak Out
Lucas is not the lone figure expressing views prior to the one-time head of state's expected detention.
Penning in a major publication, a different supporter, the ex- cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “severe” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” public service and asserted Brazil was about to experience “the greatest political injustice in its past”.
“It represents an wrong that gnaws the souls of millions Brazilian citizens,” the former minister said.
Varied Public Opinion
That may be correct considering the significant support Bolsonaro holds on the Brazilian right. However his predicted jailing has also gladdened the spirits of numerous other people who believe he ought to be incarcerated for conspiring to stop the incoming president from becoming president – and even plotting to have him murdered.
Congressman Otoni, a congressman for the current president's allied group, said: “Not a soul desires Bolsonaro to be placed in a hole. No one wants Bolsonaro to be sent in isolation. Not a soul desires Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We wish him to get proper handling – but dignified handling while incarcerated. He can’t persist being his self-appointed guard for his whole life.”
The congressman noted how Bolsonaro supporters, who have for a long time celebrating the tough conditions of convicts, had abruptly become aware to their privileges. “Just now has the extreme right – which has repeatedly asserted that human rights should not be for lawbreakers – opted to inspect a jail to learn what circumstances are actually like,” he remarked.
“He is a offender,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he earned “degrading, degrading conduct”.
Potential Incarceration Facilities
In spite of rumors that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which currently houses about thousands of detainees, his more likely assigned facility seems to be a close penitentiary for law enforcement and other “special” inmates known as Papudinha (Little Papuda).
His potential cell are much more adequate than those in the primary facility, although nevertheless a far cry from the comfort Bolsonaro had while living in the stunning official residence, around 20 kilometers away.
According to information, the room Bolsonaro could likely reside in in Papudinha measures about 260 square feet – about the size of two parking spaces – and features a 130 square foot restroom with a bathing area and a 12 sq metre veranda. “He could be allowed to have a TV and additionally a minibar in his room as long as they were donated by his family,” the report suggested.
Ideological Reactions
He denounced the talked-about plan to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “a type of payback” on the part of the presiding magistrate who oversaw Bolsonaro’s proceedings and will decide his fate in the {