Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence for sedition, was transferred this Thursday to a police facility for inmates under special conditions, located within a penitentiary complex. The far-right leader was transferred on the same day from the headquarters of the Federal Police, where he was serving his sentence in a specially adapted cell for the former head of state, to the headquarters of the 19th Battalion of the Militarized Police of Brasília, known as Papudinha because it is located in the Papuda prison complex. In Papudinha, among others, are also detained two other convicts for the attempted coup against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva: former Justice Minister Anderson Torres and former director of the Federal Highway Police Silvinei Vasques. The transfer was ordered by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the judge in the case at the Federal Supreme Court that resulted in Bolsonaro's conviction. In his decision, Moraes argued that the former president had been enjoying 'privileges' and 'very favorable conditions in relation to the rest of the prisoners in the penitentiary system.' In an extensive ruling, the magistrate stated that, 'falsely and regrettably,' there is a systematic attempt to 'delegitimize the regular and legal fulfillment of the deprivation of liberty' that Bolsonaro was serving in the Federal Police 'with absolute respect for human dignity.' Moraes cited a series of appeals filed by the lawyers of the army reserve captain, as well as complaints from his relatives, according to which the special room that the Federal Police had set aside for Bolsonaro does not meet his needs because it lacks emergency medical care or because it does not have a smart television or a silent air conditioner. The ruling determines that in Papudinha, the far-right leader be held in a 'senior officers' room,' that is, in a special cell exclusive for authorities, just as it was in the Federal Police. In his ruling, the magistrate determined that once Bolsonaro is detained in Papudinha, he will have comprehensive assistance, 24 hours a day, from the private doctors who have already been authorized to visit him at any time. Similarly, he authorized his immediate transfer to a hospital in case of an emergency, the possibility that he will be offered physical therapy sessions at the times indicated by his doctors, and that he will be offered a special diet daily, which will be brought to the police facility by a person designated by the defense. Bolsonaro had been serving his sentence since November at the headquarters of the Federal Police, from which he left on two occasions to go to the hospital, the first at the end of December for a series of surgeries and the second in January for some medical exams. The former president was convicted in September by the Supreme Court for leading a plot to 'perpetuate himself in power' after losing the 2022 presidential elections to Lula and initially served the sentence under house arrest. His lawyers have on various occasions requested that he be granted house arrest again on 'humanitarian' grounds due to his delicate state of health, but the Supreme Court has denied all appeals.
