Days after his arrest for tampering with a court-ordered ankle monitor, Brazil’s top court on Tuesday ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving his 27-year sentence behind bars for a botched coup attempt to stay in power after losing to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro, who has exhausted all his appeals, will remain in a special room at the police headquarters in Brasilia – a secure space for protected prisoners with a bed, television, air conditioning and a private bathroom – where he is currently being held.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the former president to begin his sentence in an order issued on Tuesday.
His lawyers asked the court to allow him to serve his sentence under house arrest, citing his age and litany of health problems. However, the court rejected this request in a separate resolution on Saturday.
The former president, who ruled Brazil from 2019 to 2022, was on trial over a botched coup attempt.
In August, he was placed under house arrest for violating the measures imposed on him.
He was sentenced to 27 years in prison in September after being convicted on charges of attempting a coup to stop leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after his 2022 election defeat.
On November 22, the Supreme Court, citing a potential escape risk, ordered Bolsonaro’s detention after more than 100 days of house arrest.
According to court records, Bolsonaro told the judge that drug-induced paranoia and hallucinations caused him to tamper with the electronic ankle monitor. Bolsonaro denied any intention to flee or try to remove the ankle monitor, Reuters reported.
In a petition to the Supreme Court, Bolsonaro’s lawyers said that sending the former president to prison “will have serious consequences and poses a risk to his life”, adding: “His health is already deeply weakened”.
The lawyers argued that Bolsonaro had already been hospitalized three times — twice for tests and once for a medical emergency. They added that he also suffers from ongoing “uncontrollable hiccups and requires ongoing treatment for lung infections, esophagitis and gastritis, has skin cancer and has suffered from sleep apnea that requires him to sleep on a CPAP machine.”
