Sao Paulo, Brazil — Imprisoned former President Jair Bolsonaro will begin serving the remainder of his sentence today under house arrest after being hospitalized for a week.
Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year and 3-month prison sentence for attempted coup after losing his bid for re-election in 2022, has been hospitalized at the DF Star Hospital in the capital Brasilia for more than a week due to health complications.
A medical bulletin said the 71-year-old, an ally of US President Donald Trump, was suffering from bacterial pneumonia.
Former President Jair Messias Bolsonaro’s medical team said in a recent press release, “Former President Jair Messias Bolsonaro is hospitalized at DF Star Hospital after being diagnosed with bilateral bacterial pneumonia due to bronchial aspiration. There are currently no signs of acute infection and he is showing a good clinical course. He will undergo clinical observation for the next 24 hours and is scheduled to be discharged on March 27.”
The decision to place the right-wing provocateur under house arrest was signed by Supreme Court Minister Alexandre de Moraes on March 24. Moraes was the judge in charge of the Bolsonaro case at the Brazilian Supreme Court.
According to Brazilian media, the approval came after the former president’s wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, visited Moraes’ office in Brasilia and the attorney general’s office expressed support for house arrest at the request of the former president’s lawyers.
Jair Bolsonaro was transferred from the Federal Police Headquarters, where he was initially serving his sentence, to Papudinha Prison.
The state prison had more space for the former president, as well as television and exercise areas. It is also where two former Bolsonaro ministers convicted in the same attempted coup are serving sentences: former Justice Minister Anderson Torres and former Federal Highway Police chief Sylvinay Vázquez.
Bolsonaro is expected to be discharged from hospital later today and return to his residence in the federal capital.
Featured image: Jair Bolsonaro
Image credit: Fabio Rodrigues-Pozzebom via Agência Brasil
