Conservative former President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro was transferred Thursday to another prison in Brasília with better accommodations by order of Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
De Moraes, the controversial Justice who acted as rapporteur in the “coup” trial against Bolsonaro and who led a years long persecution and censorship campaign against him and other Brazilian conservative figures, reportedly stressed that despite the better accommodations, “it’s not summer camp.”
Bolsonaro, 70, was sentenced to 27 years and three months prison last year for his alleged role in a “failed coup attempt” that allegedly sought to overturn the results of the 2022 presidential election, in which a then-incumbent Bolsonaro narrowly lost against current socialist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Since November, Bolsonaro, who suffers from multiple health conditions — and recently underwent four surgical procedures in the span of a week — had been formally serving his sentence at the Regional Superintendency of the Federal Police in Brasília. De Moraes has repeatedly denied granting humanitarian house arrest benefits for Bolsonaro over the past months.
On Thursday, the Brazilian Justice ruled to transfer Bolsonaro to a prison cell inside Papudinha (“Little Papuda”), located inside the larger and Papuda Prison Complex at the Brazilian capital.
According to the Brazilian state-owned outlet Agência Brasil, the Justice signed off the transfer citing statements from Bolsonaro’s sons denouncing that the previous prison cell did not meet “minimum standards of dignity.” De Moraes reportedly wrote in the ruling that the new accommodations “do not transform” Bolsonaro’s sentence nor does it turn it into a “hotel stay” or “summer camp.”
CNN Brasil reports that Bolsonaro was previously held at a 12-square-meter room, with the new cell having about 65 square meters, 10 of which correspond to an outdoor area. The new cell is reportedly “exclusive and completely isolated” from other inmates.
Some of the concessions granted to Bolsonaro, CNN Brasil listed, include color television, air conditioner, and better access to doctors — including authorizations for physical therapy and the ability to carry out hospital visits and hospitalizations without requiring court orders should the need arise.
The Brazilian outlet Poder 360 reported that it had reviewed a copy of the court order, in which de Moraes where he asserted that there is a “systematic attempt to delegitimize” Bolsonaro’s sentence. The Justice reportedly argued that Bolsonaro is “serving his sentence under more favorable conditions than most prisoners in closed prisons in the country, due to exceptional circumstances recognized by the STF.”
Poder 360 published a roughly one-minute video of how the cell “will look like.”
In the same ruling, Moraes reportedly denied another request for humanitarian house arrest but authorized “weekly religious assistance and the former president’s participation in a sentence reduction program through reading.”
Last week, President Lula vetoed a bill that would have significantly cut down Bolsonaro’s 27 years prison sentence down to roughly two years. Lula had previously announced his intention to veto the bill in December.
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