🔗 Share this article

He battled justice and justice triumphed.

Sixty days after getting a 27-year sentence for trying to “eradicate” Brazil’s democracy, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro finally looks jail-bound.

Anticipated Jailing

The found-guilty coup-monger – who has been under residential detention in his residence while a number of judicial steps and petitions unfold – is widely expected to be jailed in the coming days, amid growing talk that he will be sent to a well-known maximum security facility.

Historical Comments on Prisoners

Throughout Bolsonaro’s 40-year public life, the right-wing former soldier showed minimal mercy for Brazil’s inmates.

“For what reason must we provide those dirtbags a good life?” he previously wondered. “They deserve to be fucked, full-fucking-stop. That’s what I reckon.”

On another occasion, Bolsonaro declared: “If you don’t want to end up there, you simply need is not rape, kidnap or rob.”

Prison Location Discussion

However the possibility of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda prison high-security prison in Brasília has shocked supporters, four of whom this week toured the facility in an obvious bid to discourage the judiciary from sending him there.

Senator Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was part of that quartet, said he anticipated the 70-year-old figure to be imprisoned in the coming fortnight and feared his assigned prison could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s acute intestinal ailments – the result of a life-threatening assault during the last election race – implied it would be hazardous to keep the former president there. “His [health] situation is highly critical. He will not be able to handle it if they move him to Papuda … It would be awful,” he added, who also worried about packed cells and the quality of prison meals.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas remembered seeing cells holding forty inmates: “It's virtually one meter squared per detainee.

“We spoke to the convicts and they protest, of course, of the awful cuisine,” added the senator.

Backers Voice Concerns

The senator isn't the sole person speaking out ahead of the ex-leader's anticipated incarceration.

Writing in a prominent publication, one more backer, the former communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “harsh” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” time in office and alleged Brazil was about to see “the largest unfairness in its history”.

“It is an unfairness that gnaws the souls of many of Brazilians,” the former minister said.

Divided Popular Response

This could be true considering the significant following Bolsonaro retains on the right-wing. But his predicted jailing has also gladdened the hearts of numerous others who think he deserves to be incarcerated for conspiring to prevent his successor from assuming office – and even scheming to have him assassinated.

Congressman Otoni, a congressman for the sitting president's allied group, stated: “No one desires Bolsonaro to be placed in a hole. No one desires Bolsonaro to be put in solitary confinement. No one wants Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We want him to get respectful handling – but dignified handling while incarcerated. He can’t persist being his self-appointed guard for his lifetime.”

He observed how Bolsonaro supporters, who have long celebrating the severe conditions of convicts, had unexpectedly become aware to their entitlements. “Only now has the conservative fringe – which has repeatedly argued that human rights are not for lawbreakers – decided to inspect a penitentiary to learn what conditions are truly like,” he remarked.

“He is a lawbreaker,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he deserved “degrading, degrading conduct”.

Likely Incarceration Facilities

Despite talk that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which now houses about fourteen thousand detainees, his probable destination appears to be a close prison for officers and other “particular” detainees referred to as Papudinha (Small Papuda).

The accommodations are far more adequate than those in the primary facility, although nevertheless a distant from the comfort Bolsonaro enjoyed while living in the impressive leader's home, approximately 12 miles away.

As per reports, the cell Bolsonaro could expect to occupy in Papudinha is about 260 square feet – approximately the dimensions of a couple of car spots – and includes a 130 square foot bathroom with a water facility and a 12 square meter veranda. “The ex-president might be allowed to have a TV and even a small fridge in his room as long as they were donated by his family,” information suggested.

Partisan Comments

The lawmaker condemned the talked-about proposal to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “a type of payback” on the part of the supreme court judge who led Bolsonaro’s coup trial and will rule on his fate in the {