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He fought the law and justice won.

Two months following getting a 27-year sentence for trying to “annihilate” Brazil’s political system, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro finally appears jail-bound.

Anticipated Imprisonment

The convicted plotter – who had been living under house arrest in his estate while a series of court processes and appeals unfold – is widely expected to be imprisoned in the coming days, during growing speculation that he will be transferred to a notorious top-security facility.

Previous Comments on Prisoners

Throughout Bolsonaro’s long public life, the conservative former military man exhibited minimal sympathy for Brazil’s inmates.

“What’s the need to give these scoundrels a comfortable existence?” he once mused. “They deserve to be fucked, end of story. That's my view.”

On another occasion, Bolsonaro declared: “Should you not wish to finish there, you simply need is to avoid sexual assault, abduction or rob.”

Incarceration Destination Speculation

But the idea of Bolsonaro himself landing in the Papuda prison top-security prison in Brasília has shocked supporters, several of whom this week inspected the complex in an seeming bid to dissuade the judiciary from sending him there.

Izalci Lucas, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro’s political party who was among that group, said he predicted the elderly figure to be incarcerated in the coming fortnight and feared his assigned prison could be Papuda.

He asserted Bolsonaro’s acute digestive ailments – the outcome of a almost deadly stabbing during the 2018 presidential presidential campaign – meant it would be risky to keep the ex-leader there. “His health is extremely serious. He won’t be able to cope if they move him to Papuda … It will be awful,” said the senator, who also worried about overcrowded cells and the quality of jail cuisine.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas noted witnessing cells accommodating forty detainees: “That is practically one square meter per detainee.

“We spoke to the prisoners and they protest, unsurprisingly, of the terrible food,” remarked the senator.

Backers Speak Out

The senator isn't the sole person expressing views before the ex-leader's expected incarceration.

Authoring in a prominent daily, a different supporter, the ex- communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “harsh” finale to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” public service and asserted Brazil was about to experience “the biggest unfairness in its record”.

“This is an injustice that gnaws the souls of millions people in Brazil,” Wajngarten wrote.

Mixed Public Opinion

It is possibly true given the substantial support Bolsonaro holds on the Brazilian right. Yet his predicted jailing has also gladdened the spirits of many other people who believe he should be jailed for conspiring to stop his successor from becoming president – and even conspiring to have him killed.

Reimont Otoni, a congressman for the sitting leader's allied group, said: “Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be placed in a dark cell. No one wants Bolsonaro to be placed in isolation. No one wants Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We desire him to obtain proper handling – but proper care in prison. He can’t continue being his self-appointed guard for his entire life.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro backers, who have for a long time praising the harsh handling of inmates, had unexpectedly become aware to their rights. “Recently has the extreme right – which has repeatedly argued that civil liberties were not for lawbreakers – decided to tour a jail to find out what circumstances are really like,” he remarked.

“He is a lawbreaker,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he merited “humiliating, demeaning handling”.

Likely Jail Environment

In spite of speculation that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which now contains about thousands of inmates, his expected assigned facility appears to be a adjacent penitentiary for law enforcement and other “unique” detainees referred to as Papudinha (Small Papuda).

Its cells are much more adequate than those in the primary facility, although still a world away from the luxury Bolsonaro enjoyed while occupying the spectacular presidential palace, around a short distance away.

Based on sources, the accommodation Bolsonaro could likely reside in in Papudinha is about 260 square feet – roughly the area of vehicle spaces – and contains a 130 square foot restroom with a water facility and a 12 square meter veranda. “Bolsonaro would be authorized to have a television and even a cooler in his cell as long as they were donated by his family,” the report suggested.

Political Responses

Senator Lucas denounced the speculated proposal to send the former leader to Papuda as “a type of retaliation” on the part of the judicial authority who presided over Bolsonaro’s coup trial and will rule on his outcome in the {