Jailhouse Surprise: The Ex-President Jair Bolsonaro Faces Life in Prison
He fought justice and the law won.
Sixty days subsequent to receiving a twenty-seven-year sentence for seeking to “destroy” the nation's democracy, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro now seems headed to prison.
Anticipated Jailing
The adjudicated coup-monger – who had been subject to residential detention in his residence while a set of legal procedures and appeals play out – is widely expected to be jailed in the next few days, amidst mounting talk that he will be transferred to a well-known high-security penitentiary.
Previous Comments on Prisoners
Throughout Bolsonaro’s four-decade public life, the conservative ex- soldier showed minimal sympathy for Brazil’s prison population.
“For what reason must we offer those scoundrels a comfortable existence?” he once pondered. “They should just get screwed, period. That's my opinion.”
At another time, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “If you don’t want to wind up in prison, the only thing required is to avoid sexual assault, kidnap or theft.”
Prison Destination Speculation
But the possibility of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda prison high-security prison in Brasília has horrified allies, four of whom this week inspected the complex in an apparent effort to discourage the supreme court from sending him there.
Izalci Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s political party who was part of that quartet, stated he predicted the septuagenarian leader to be jailed in the coming fortnight and feared his location could be Papuda.
Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s serious intestinal issues – the outcome of a almost deadly knife attack during the 2018 presidential campaign – implied it would be risky to keep the ex-leader there. “His [health] situation is highly critical. He won’t be able to handle it if they move him to Papuda … It will be dreadful,” said the senator, who also voiced anxiety about overcrowded cells and the condition of inmate food.
While visiting Papuda, Lucas remembered seeing cells accommodating forty inmates: “That’s virtually one meter squared per prisoner.
“We talked to the inmates and they complain, unsurprisingly, of the terrible meals,” remarked the senator.
Backers Speak Out
Lucas is not the lone figure expressing views ahead of the one-time head of state's predicted imprisonment.
Penning in a major publication, a different supporter, the former cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “harsh” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” public service and alleged Brazil was about to witness “the largest wrong in its history”.
“It is an injustice that gnaws the spirits of countless Brazilian citizens,” Wajngarten wrote.
Mixed Popular Response
It is possibly true given the significant backing Bolsonaro holds on the Brazilian right. But his anticipated imprisonment has also gladdened the spirits of millions others who feel he deserves to be imprisoned for plotting to stop his successor from becoming president – and also scheming to have him killed.
The lawmaker, a representative for the sitting president's political party, commented: “No one wishes Bolsonaro to be placed in a hole. Nobody desires Bolsonaro to be sent in isolation. Nobody wishes Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We want him to obtain proper handling – but respectful treatment in prison. He cannot carry on being his own prison warden for his entire life.”
Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro backers, who have for a long time celebrating the severe handling of convicts, had suddenly become aware to their rights. “Just now has the extreme right – which has always claimed that civil liberties were not for criminals – chosen to visit a prison to find out what situations are truly like,” he stated.
“Bolsonaro is a lawbreaker,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he merited “shameful, insulting handling”.
Likely Incarceration Facilities
In spite of speculation that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which presently contains about fourteen thousand inmates, his expected assigned facility seems to be a close jail for police officers and other “special” prisoners known as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).
His potential cell are considerably more pleasant than those in the primary facility, although still a world away from the comfort Bolsonaro experienced while residing in the stunning leader's home, about 20 kilometers away.
As per reports, the cell Bolsonaro could expect to occupy in Papudinha is about 24 sq metres – roughly the dimensions of vehicle spaces – and features a 12 square meter restroom with a bathing area and a 12 sq metre terrace. “He could be allowed to have a TV and also a minibar in his quarters as long as they were donated by his loved ones,” sources stated.
Political Responses
Senator Lucas condemned the rumoured 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 rule on his outcome in the {