Brazil’s Bolsonaro sent to new prison with roomier cell, more perks

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro was on Thursday transferred to prison, where he will serve his sentence for orchestrating a failed coup in “more favourable” conditions, according to a court order.

The 70-year-old former leader was sentenced to 27 years in prison last year for his attempts to cling to power following his narrow 2022 re-election loss to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro’s family has repeatedly complained on podcasts and social media about the conditions in which he was previously being held in a room at police headquarters, including excessive noise from an air conditioner, inadequate space and the food.

Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes criticised a bid to “delegitimise the regular and legal fulfilment of the prison sentence.”

He elaborated for several pages in his ruling on the dire conditions facing inmates in Brazil’s overcrowded prisons, highlighting the already “exclusive conditions” under which Bolsonaro is serving his sentence.

He criticised the complaints as apparent demands for Bolsonaro’s jail time to be converted to “a hotel stay or a holiday resort”.