Brazil's Bolsonaro finds novel way to reduce 27-year sentence: reading books

"Jair Bolsonaro's lawyers appear to have been reading up on the country's penal code and have found a way to help their client reduce the 27-year prison sentence he received last year for plotting a coup: by reading books. There is only one problem: the former far-right Brazilian president has never been known as a bibliophile. Sorry, I don't have time to read, Bolsonaro once declared. It's been three years since I read a book."

"Brazilian law contains a literary device through which book-reading inmates can cut their sentences by four days for each title read. On Thursday, a supreme court judge authorised the disgraced former president to take part in the scheme after a request from his legal team. Bolsonaro, a former paratrooper famed for his hostility to democracy, minorities, the Amazon rainforest and the arts, is unlikely to appreciate the approved reading list. It includes Brazilian works on Indigenous rights, racism, the environment and the violence meted out by the country's 1964-85 dictatorship a regime Bolsonaro openly supported."

"One title, Ana Maria Goncalves' 950-page Um Defeito de Cor (A Colour Defect), tells the history of Brazil from the point of view of a Black woman. Also featured is Democracy!, a children's non-fiction picture book by the English-born author-illustrator Philip Bunting. Some of the books on the list, such as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote, are more than 1,000 pages long."

Jair Bolsonaro received a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup. His lawyers invoked a legal provision that cuts prison time by four days per book read, and a supreme court judge authorised his participation. The approved reading list features works on Indigenous rights, racism, the environment and violence under Brazil's 1964–85 dictatorship. Titles include Ana Maria Goncalves' Um Defeito de Cor, Philip Bunting's Democracy!, and classics such as War and Peace and Don Quixote. Prisoners must submit written reports proving they read each book to obtain the reductions. Bolsonaro has publicly stated he rarely reads and once named a book by Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra as his favourite during the 2018 campaign.

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