Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro began serving his 27-year prison sentence on Tuesday, a move that many in the South American nation doubted would ever take place after he was sentenced for leading a coup attempt designed to keep him in office after losing the 2022 presidential elections. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has overseen the case, ruled Bolsonaro will remain at the same federal police headquarters where he has been since he was preemptively arrested on Saturday for being considered a flight risk, the AP reports.
De Moraes ruled Tuesday that no further appeals were possible, the BBC reports. Bolsonaro will not have any contact with the few other inmates at the federal police headquarters. His 12-square-meter room has a bed, a private bathroom, air conditioning, a TV set, and a desk, according to federal police. Brazil's criminal law also could have allowed the 70-year-old to be transferred to a local penitentiary or to a prison room in a military facility in capital Brasilia. His lawyers wanted him to be on house arrest due to his poor health.
Bolsonaro had been under house arrest since August when de Moraes first mentioned he could escape. The far-right leader said "hallucinations" had led him to break his ankle monitoring with a soldering iron on Saturday, a claim that de Moraes dismissed in his preemptive arrest order. The former president and several of his allies were convicted by a panel of Supreme Court justices for attempting to overthrow Brazil's democracy following his 2022 election defeat. The plot included plans to kill President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, and Justice de Moraes. The plan also involved egging on an insurrection in early 2023.
Two others convicted, Augusto Heleno and Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, both Army generals, were sent the military facility in Brasilia to start serving their sentences. Former justice minister Anderson Torres is now imprisoned at the Papuda penitentiary, also in Brazil's capital. Adm. Almir Garnier will serve his term at Navy facilities in Brasilia. Bolsonaro's running mate and former Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto, another army general, will remain in prison at military facilities in Rio de Janeiro. Alexandre Ramagem, Bolsonaro's spy chief, recently fled to the US to avoid serving his 16-year sentence, the Guardian reports.
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