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He contested the legal system and justice prevailed.

Sixty days after receiving a 27-year sentence for seeking to “annihilate” the nation's political system, former president Jair Bolsonaro now seems headed to prison.

Imminent Imprisonment

The convicted plotter – who has been under residential detention in his estate while a number of legal procedures and challenges unfold – is widely expected to be jailed in the next few days, amidst growing speculation that he will be sent to a notorious top-security prison.

Past Remarks on Inmates

During Bolsonaro’s long public life, the far-right former soldier showed scant mercy for Brazil’s inmates.

“What’s the need to provide these scoundrels a comfortable existence?” he previously wondered. “They deserve to be messed, end of story. That’s what I reckon.”

At another time, Bolsonaro stated: “Unless you desire to finish there, all you have to do is not rape, kidnap or theft.”

Jail Facility Speculation

However the prospect of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda prison maximum security prison in Brasília has appalled backers, several of whom this week toured the facility in an obvious effort to dissuade the judiciary from transferring him there.

The senator, a senator from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was among that group, said he anticipated the septuagenarian politician to be incarcerated in the following week and a half and feared his assigned prison could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s serious intestinal problems – the outcome of a almost deadly knife attack during the last political campaign – implied it would be risky to keep the one-time head of state there. “His [health] situation is extremely serious. He cannot to handle it if they send him to Papuda … It will be dreadful,” he added, who also worried about overcrowded cells and the quality of jail cuisine.

During his tour Papuda, Lucas recalled observing cells holding four dozen prisoners: “That is almost one square meter per inmate.

“We talked to the inmates and they protest, of course, of the horrible cuisine,” remarked the senator.

Backers React

The senator isn't the only voice voicing opinions prior to the ex-leader's predicted detention.

Penning in a leading daily, one more backer, the ex- cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “harsh” end to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” time in office and asserted Brazil was about to see “the biggest unfairness in its history”.

“This is an unfairness that erodes the souls of countless people in Brazil,” Wajngarten wrote.

Divided Popular Reaction

This could be accurate considering the significant support Bolsonaro maintains on the right-wing. However his predicted imprisonment has also warmed the hearts of millions others who believe he should be imprisoned for conspiring to stop the elected leader from becoming president – and also plotting to have him assassinated.

The lawmaker, a congressman for the incumbent president's Workers’ party, said: “No one wishes Bolsonaro to be sent in a dungeon. Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be sent in isolation. No one desires Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We desire him to obtain dignified care – but respectful treatment behind bars. He must not persist being his own prison warden for his entire life.”

He observed how Bolsonaro backers, who have spent years applauding the tough treatment of inmates, had abruptly woken up to their rights. “Only now has the extreme right – which has repeatedly asserted that basic rights were not for offenders – opted to tour a penitentiary to discover what conditions are truly like,” he said.

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

Likely Incarceration Conditions

Regardless of talk that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which now houses about thousands of detainees, his more likely location appears to be a adjacent prison for officers and other “particular” prisoners known as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

Its cells are much more comfortable than those in the primary facility, although nevertheless a distant from the opulence Bolsonaro experienced while living in the impressive presidential palace, around 20 kilometers away.

As per sources, the accommodation Bolsonaro could likely occupy in Papudinha is about 24 square meters – about the dimensions of vehicle spaces – and includes a 12 sq metre restroom with a bathing area and a 12 square meter terrace. “Bolsonaro would be allowed to have a set and even a cooler in his cell as long as they were supplied by his family,” the report indicated.

Ideological Reactions

Senator Lucas denounced the rumoured idea to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “a type of retaliation” on the part of the presiding magistrate who presided over Bolsonaro’s legal case and will decide his outcome in the {