Prison Shock: Brazil's Ex-President Bolsonaro Faces Life in Prison
He battled the law and the legal system prevailed.
Two months subsequent to getting a quarter-century plus sentence for trying to “destroy” the nation's democratic institutions, former president Jair Bolsonaro now seems destined for incarceration.
Expected Jailing
The found-guilty plotter – who's been subject to home confinement in his mansion while a set of court processes and appeals unfold – is broadly anticipated to be imprisoned in the coming days, during mounting speculation that he will be moved to a notorious maximum security facility.
Previous Statements on Convicts
Throughout Bolsonaro’s long political career, the right-wing former military man exhibited little mercy for Brazil’s inmates.
“Why should we give those scoundrels a comfortable existence?” he once pondered. “They ought to simply be fucked, full-fucking-stop. That’s what I reckon.”
On another occasion, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “Unless you desire to wind up behind bars, you simply need is to avoid sexual assault, kidnap or theft.”
Jail Location Speculation
However the possibility of Bolsonaro himself landing in the Papuda maximum security prison in Brasília has horrified backers, several of whom this week visited the prison in an seeming attempt to dissuade the high court from banishing him there.
Senator Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s political party who was one of the visitors, said he anticipated the elderly leader to be incarcerated in the next 10 days and worried his assigned prison could be Papuda.
Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s serious intestinal ailments – the result of a near-fatal knife attack during the 2018 presidential campaign – signified it would be hazardous to keep the ex-leader there. “His condition is highly critical. He cannot to cope if they take him to Papuda … It could be terrible,” he commented, who also expressed concern about cramped cells and the quality of inmate food.
During his tour Papuda, Lucas recalled observing cells accommodating forty prisoners: “That’s virtually one square metre per inmate.
“We talked to the prisoners and they protest, unsurprisingly, of the terrible cuisine,” remarked the senator.
Supporters Speak Out
He is not the lone figure speaking out ahead of the ex-leader's expected imprisonment.
Penning in a leading daily, another ally, the former communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “harsh” end to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” political career and claimed Brazil was about to witness “the biggest political injustice in its history”.
“It represents an unfairness that eats away the souls of millions of Brazilians,” he stated.
Varied General Reaction
This could be true due to the significant support Bolsonaro maintains on the Brazilian right. Yet his expected jailing has also pleased the spirits of numerous individuals who believe he deserves to be incarcerated for conspiring to block his successor from taking power – and additionally plotting to have him murdered.
Reimont Otoni, a congressman for the current administration's political party, stated: “No one wants Bolsonaro to be placed in a dark cell. Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be put in segregation. No one wants Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to lie on concrete. We wish him to get respectful treatment – but dignified handling while incarcerated. He must not persist being his own prison warden for his lifetime.”
Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro allies, who have for a long time celebrating the tough conditions of inmates, had abruptly become aware to their privileges. “Only now has the far-right – which has always argued that basic rights should not be for offenders – decided to inspect a jail to discover what conditions are really like,” he stated.
“Bolsonaro is a lawbreaker,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he deserved “shameful, demeaning treatment”.
Possible Jail Facilities
Regardless of talk that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which currently contains about fourteen thousand prisoners, his probable destination looks to be a nearby prison for police officers and other “special” inmates called Papudinha (Little Papuda).
His potential cell are far more adequate than those in the larger jail, although nonetheless a distant from the opulence Bolsonaro experienced while occupying the impressive official residence, around 20 kilometers away.
Based on information, the room Bolsonaro could expect to inhabit in Papudinha is about 24 square meters – roughly the size of two parking spaces – and contains a 12 square meter WC with a water facility and a 130 square foot veranda. “The ex-president might be allowed to have a TV and also a minibar in his cell as long as they were provided by his loved ones,” sources indicated.
Partisan Responses
Senator Lucas criticized the talked-about idea to send the former leader to Papuda as “a type of retaliation” on the part of the supreme court judge who led Bolsonaro’s legal case and will determine his future in the {