Jailhouse Surprise: The FormerPresident Bolsonaro Faces Time Behind Bars
He fought the law and the law prevailed.
Two months following being handed a twenty-seven-year sentence for attempting to “destroy” the nation's democracy, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro now appears headed to prison.
Imminent Incarceration
The found-guilty instigator – who has been under house arrest in his residence while a number of court processes and challenges unfold – is widely expected to be incarcerated in the near future, amidst growing rumors that he will be moved to a well-known high-security facility.
Past Statements on Convicts
During Bolsonaro’s long time in politics, the right-wing ex- soldier exhibited minimal compassion for Brazil’s prison population.
“Why should we offer those scoundrels a easy time?” he once mused. “They ought to simply be messed, period. That's my view.”
On another occasion, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “Unless you desire to finish in prison, you simply need is not rape, kidnap or rob.”
Prison Destination Speculation
However the prospect of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda prison maximum security prison in Brasília has horrified supporters, a group of four this week toured the facility in an obvious effort to dissuade the judiciary from sending him there.
Senator Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was among that group, said he expected the 70-year-old leader to be imprisoned in the coming fortnight and worried his location could be Papuda.
He asserted Bolsonaro’s severe intestinal ailments – the result of a almost deadly assault during the 2018 political campaign – meant it would be dangerous to keep the former president there. “His health is extremely serious. He cannot to manage if they take him to Papuda … It would be dreadful,” said the senator, who also voiced anxiety about overcrowded cells and the condition of prison meals.
While visiting Papuda, Lucas noted observing cells accommodating 40 detainees: “That’s practically one square metre per inmate.
“We talked to the prisoners and they complain, naturally, of the terrible meals,” remarked the senator.
Backers React
He is not the only voice expressing views prior to the former president’s anticipated imprisonment.
Writing in a major publication, another ally, the ex- government official Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “severe” finale to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” time in office and asserted Brazil was about to witness “the biggest unfairness in its past”.
“This is an injustice that gnaws the hearts of millions of Brazilians,” he stated.
Divided General Reaction
That may be true considering the considerable support Bolsonaro maintains on the Brazilian right. But his expected imprisonment has also pleased the hearts of many others who feel he should be imprisoned for planning to stop the elected leader from becoming president – and even conspiring to have him assassinated.
Reimont Otoni, a representative for the current president's political party, said: “Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be sent in a dark cell. Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to be placed in isolation. Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to lie on concrete. We wish him to obtain dignified handling – but respectful handling behind bars. He must not continue being his self-appointed guard for his entire life.”
The congressman noted how Bolsonaro backers, who have spent years praising the severe conditions of prisoners, had abruptly realized to their entitlements. “Only now has the far-right – which has always asserted that basic rights should not be for offenders – decided to visit a jail to find out what conditions are really like,” he said.
“The former president is a criminal,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he merited “degrading, degrading conduct”.
Likely Prison Environment
In spite of talk that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which now houses about thousands of inmates, his probable location appears to be a adjacent prison for officers and other “unique” inmates referred to as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).
The accommodations are considerably more pleasant than those in the primary facility, although still a distant from the opulence Bolsonaro enjoyed while residing in the stunning official residence, about 20 kilometers away.
As per reports, the room Bolsonaro could likely reside in in Papudinha is about 260 square feet – approximately the size of a couple of car spots – and features a 12 square meter WC with a shower and a 12 square meter veranda. “The ex-president might be allowed to have a set and even a small fridge in his cell as long as they were donated by his relatives,” the report suggested.
Partisan Comments
The lawmaker criticized the speculated plan to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “a type of revenge” on the part of the presiding magistrate who led Bolsonaro’s legal case and will rule on his fate in the {