Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro will remain in a special room at police headquarters in the capital, Brasilia, as he begins serving a 27-year prison sentence for a coup bid.

The Brazilian Supreme Court ordered former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving his sentence on Tuesday, according to court documents.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the 70-year-old to begin his sentence of 27 years and three months in prison at the headquarters of Brazil’s Federal Police in Brasilia, where he has been held in custody since Saturday.

Bolsonaro was sentenced in September to prison for planning a coup after losing the 2022 presidential election to now leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

What are the conditions like for Bolsonaro in prison?

He will not have any contact with the few other inmates at the police headquarters. His 12-square-meter room has a bed, a private bathroom, air conditioning, a television and a desk, according to police.

The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal to his sentence earlier this month, and on Tuesday ruled the judgment was now final, with no further challenges allowed.

Bolsonaro had been under house arrest since August and was taken to police headquarters on Saturday after attempting to dismantle his ankle monitor. Bolsonaro blamed “hallucinations” for the incident, a claim Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes rejected in his preemptive arrest order.

Bolsonaro’s defense attorney responds

Later on Tuesday, defense attorney Paulo Cunha Bueno said it was “surprising” that the court ruled Bolsonaro’s coup conviction final, “while a potentially admissible appeal has not yet been filed.”

“In any case, the defense will submit, within the timeframe established by the Court’s regulations, the appeal it deems appropriate,” he wrote on X.

Edited by: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez and Wesley Dockery

DW News