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He battled the legal system and the legal system won.

Two months following being handed a twenty-seven-year sentence for seeking to “eradicate” Brazil’s political system, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro now appears headed to prison.

Imminent Incarceration

The adjudicated coup-monger – who had been subject to home confinement in his estate while a set of legal procedures and challenges play out – is widely expected to be incarcerated in the near future, during increasing speculation that he will be transferred to a well-known top-security prison.

Previous Comments on Prisoners

Throughout Bolsonaro’s four-decade political career, the right-wing former paratrooper showed little mercy for the country's jailed individuals.

“What’s the need to offer those scoundrels a easy time?” he once mused. “They deserve to be messed, period. That's my opinion.”

In another instance, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “If you don’t want to end up there, the only thing required is not rape, abduction or rob.”

Jail Location Speculation

Yet the prospect of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda high-security prison in Brasília has horrified backers, 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 one of the visitors, said he anticipated the elderly figure to be imprisoned in the following week and a half and worried his destination could be Papuda.

The senator argued Bolsonaro’s serious digestive ailments – the outcome of a almost deadly knife attack during the last election race – meant it would be risky to keep the one-time head of state there. “His health is highly critical. He will not be able to cope if they send him to Papuda … It would be awful,” said the senator, who also worried about cramped cells and the condition of prison meals.

When inspecting Papuda, Lucas noted observing cells holding forty inmates: “It's almost one square metre per detainee.

“We conversed to the prisoners and they complain, of course, of the horrible meals,” added the senator.

Backers Voice Concerns

The senator isn't the sole person speaking out prior to the former president’s anticipated detention.

Authoring in a major daily, one more backer, the ex- cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “harsh” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” public service and claimed Brazil was about to witness “the largest political injustice in its record”.

“This is an wrong that eats away the hearts of many Brazilian citizens,” he stated.

Divided General Response

That may be true given the substantial support Bolsonaro maintains on the conservative side. But his anticipated incarceration has also warmed the feelings of many others who think he deserves to be imprisoned for conspiring to block the incoming president from taking power – and even conspiring to have him assassinated.

Reimont Otoni, a congressman for the incumbent president's Workers’ party, stated: “Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be sent in a hole. No one wishes Bolsonaro to be sent in solitary confinement. Nobody wants Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We desire him to obtain proper care – but proper handling behind bars. He cannot persist being his self-appointed guard for his lifetime.”

The congressman noted how Bolsonaro backers, who have long celebrating the severe conditions of inmates, had suddenly woken up to their rights. “Only now has the far-right – which has always asserted that civil liberties should not be for lawbreakers – opted to inspect a prison to discover what situations are actually like,” he stated.

“He is a offender,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he merited “degrading, insulting treatment”.

Likely Jail Environment

Regardless of speculation that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which currently holds about 14,000 inmates, his expected location appears to be a nearby penitentiary for law enforcement and other “special” detainees known as Papudinha (Little Papuda).

Its cells are far more adequate than those in the primary facility, although nonetheless a world away from the opulence Bolsonaro enjoyed while living in the impressive official residence, approximately 20 kilometers away.

As per sources, the accommodation Bolsonaro could anticipate occupy in Papudinha measures about 24 square meters – roughly the dimensions of two parking spaces – and features a 130 square foot bathroom with a water facility and a 12 sq metre veranda. “The ex-president might be authorized to have a TV and also a cooler in his room as long as they were donated by his loved ones,” the report indicated.

Ideological Reactions

Senator Lucas condemned the speculated plan to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “an act of retaliation” on the part of the supreme court judge who presided over Bolsonaro’s proceedings and will decide his outcome in the {