Jair Bolsonaro's lawyers have found an unusual way for the former Brazilian president to shave time off the 27 year prison sentence he received for plotting a coup. Under Brazilian law, inmates can reduce their sentences by four days for every book they read, a scheme a supreme court judge has now approved for Bolsonaro.
The move is ironic given Bolsonaro's long professed disdain for reading. He has previously said he did not have time for books and once claimed to have gone years without finishing one. To qualify for the reduction, however, prisoners must submit written reports proving they have actually read each title.
The approved reading list may prove especially challenging. It includes books on Indigenous rights, racism, environmental protection and the brutality of Brazil's 1964 to 1985 military dictatorship, a regime Bolsonaro has openly praised. Among them are lengthy classics such as War and Peace and Don Quixote, as well as a children's book titled Democracy!.
Bolsonaro, who was recently transferred to a maximum security prison in Brasília, has previously cited as his favourite book a memoir by a notorious military officer accused of torture during the dictatorship. That title does not appear on the official list, which instead includes works confronting the very abuses Bolsonaro has often defended...