Jailhouse Shock: Brazil's Ex-President Jair Bolsonaro Faces Time Behind Bars
He battled the legal system and the legal system won.
Sixty days after receiving a quarter-century plus sentence for trying to “annihilate” the nation's democratic institutions, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro at last seems destined for incarceration.
Imminent Jailing
The found-guilty coup-monger – who has been under residential detention in his mansion while a series of judicial steps and appeals play out – is widely expected to be incarcerated in the coming days, amidst growing speculation that he will be moved to a well-known high-security prison.
Previous Remarks on Inmates
During Bolsonaro’s four-decade public life, the conservative ex- military man showed little sympathy for Brazil’s inmates.
“Why should we provide these lowlifes a comfortable existence?” he previously wondered. “They deserve to be screwed, end of story. That's my opinion.”
On another occasion, Bolsonaro stated: “Unless you desire to finish in prison, the only thing required is not sexual assault, abduction or theft.”
Incarceration Destination Discussion
But the idea of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda maximum security prison in Brasília has appalled allies, a group of four this week toured the complex in an seeming bid to prevent the judiciary from banishing him there.
Senator Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was part of that quartet, claimed he predicted the elderly figure to be imprisoned in the following week and a half and worried his location could be Papuda.
Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s acute intestinal problems – the outcome of a almost deadly assault during the 2018 presidential presidential campaign – implied it would be risky to keep the ex-leader there. “His health is very grave. He will not be able to manage if they send him to Papuda … It will be terrible,” said the senator, who also worried about cramped cells and the standard of inmate food.
While visiting Papuda, Lucas noted seeing cells accommodating forty detainees: “That’s virtually one square meter per inmate.
“We spoke to the inmates and they grumble, of course, of the terrible food,” added the senator.
Backers React
He is not the only voice expressing views ahead of the ex-leader's anticipated incarceration.
Penning in a leading publication, one more backer, the former government official Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “brutal” finale to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” time in office and asserted Brazil was about to witness “the largest political injustice in its past”.
“It is an injustice that erodes the hearts of millions people in Brazil,” Wajngarten wrote.
Divided Popular Reaction
It is possibly correct considering the significant backing Bolsonaro holds on the conservative side. However his anticipated incarceration has also pleased the feelings of numerous other people who feel he should be imprisoned for conspiring to block the elected leader from assuming office – and additionally conspiring to have him killed.
Congressman Otoni, a representative for the incumbent leader's allied group, commented: “Not a soul desires Bolsonaro to be put in a dungeon. Nobody desires Bolsonaro to be sent in segregation. No one desires Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We wish him to get proper handling – but proper treatment behind bars. He can’t continue being his own prison warden for his whole life.”
He observed how Bolsonaro supporters, who have for a long time applauding the tough handling of prisoners, had unexpectedly realized to their rights. “Just now has the conservative fringe – which has repeatedly asserted that civil liberties were not for offenders – chosen to visit a penitentiary to discover what situations are really like,” he stated.
“He is a criminal,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he deserved “shameful, insulting treatment”.
Potential Jail Conditions
Regardless of rumors that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which presently houses about fourteen thousand inmates, his more likely assigned facility appears to be a close penitentiary for police officers and other “unique” prisoners known as Papudinha (Small Papuda).
The accommodations are considerably more pleasant than those in the larger jail, although nonetheless a world away from the comfort Bolsonaro enjoyed while occupying the impressive official residence, about 12 miles away.
According to information, the cell Bolsonaro could likely occupy in Papudinha is about 260 square feet – approximately the size of two parking spaces – and contains a 12 sq metre restroom with a water facility and a 12 square meter balcony. “He could be permitted to have a TV and additionally a cooler in his cell as long as they were provided by his relatives,” information indicated.
Ideological Comments
The lawmaker condemned the rumoured idea to send the ex-president to Papuda as “a form of payback” on the part of the judicial authority who presided over Bolsonaro’s legal case and will decide his outcome in the {