Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been ordered to start serving his 27-year sentence in a 12 sq metre bedroom in a police base in the capital, Brasília, after his conviction for plotting a coup.
On Tuesday, the supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes ruled that Bolsonaro should start serving his sentence after the case formally ended following a period for appeals.
Bolsonaro’s six co-conspirators were also ordered to start their sentences.
The former spy chief Alexandre Ramagem received a 16-year sentence, but recently fled to the US to avoid jail.
Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians died during a Covid outbreak Bolsonaro was accused of catastrophically mishandling with his anti-scientific stance.
On Tuesday afternoon, as the plotters began to serve their sentences, there was no immediate sign citizens would heed his call.
After visiting his father earlier in the day, Carlos Bolsonaro told reporters: “He’s psychologically devastated. »