Days after his arrest for tampering with a court-mandated ankle monitor, the Supreme Court in Brazil on Tuesday ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving his 27-year sentence behind bars for a botched coup bid to remain in power, after his loss to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro who has exhausted all his appeals, will remain in a special room at police headquarters in Brasilia — a secure space for protected prisoners with a bed, TV, air conditioning and private bathroom — where he is currently detained.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the former president to start the sentence in an order issued on Tuesday.
His lawyers had asked the court to allow him to serve the sentence under house arrest, citing his age and a litany of health problems. However, the court denied that request in a separate order on Saturday.
The former president, who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022, was on trial over a botched coup bid.
In August, he was placed under house arrest for violating measures imposed on him.
In September, he was sentenced to 27 years in jail, following his conviction on charges that he attempted a coup to stop leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after his 2022 election defeat.
On November 22, citing him as potential flight risk, Supreme Court ordered Bolsonaro's detention after more than 100 days of house arrest.
According to court records, Bolsonaro had told the judge that medicine-induced paranoia and hallucination caused him to tamper with an electronic ankle monitor. Bolsonaro denied any intent to escape or try to remove the ankle monitor, reported Reuters.
In a petition to the top court, Bolsonaro lawyers said that sending the former president to prison ‘will have serious consequences and represents a risk to his life’, adding, "His health condition is already deeply debilitated."
The lawyers argued that Bolsonaro has already been hospitalised three times — twice for tests and once due to a medical emergency. They added that he also suffers from persistent 'uncontrollable hiccups and requires continuous treatment for pulmonary infections, esophagitis and gastritis, has skin cancer and suffered from sleep apnea that required him to sleep with a CPAP machine.
