Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro spent the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in a hospital in Brasilia after feeling unwell, his family said, a few days after his sentence to 27 years in prison for attempted coup d’état.
Under house arrest since the beginning of August, the former far-right leader (2019-2022) “felt unwell, with a strong attack of hiccups, vomiting and a drop in pressure,” his eldest son, Flavio Bolsonaro, explained on Tuesday on X.
The ex-president had a “more severe episode” of hiccups that left him “nearly ten seconds without breathing,” he later told reporters outside the hospital.
The condition of Jair Bolsonaro, 70, “is stable but he does not look good,” continued the senator, adding that his father would spend the night “under observation.”
After examinations, the former Brazilian leader received medication intravenously, his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, said on Instagram, asking her husband’s supporters to “continue to pray” for him.
Tuesday afternoon, prison police officers stood guard in front of the hospital, AFP noted.
The ex-president has experienced numerous health problems in recent years and has been operated on several times due to the after-effects of a stabbing attack suffered during a crowd bath in the middle of the electoral campaign in 2018.
In April, he underwent major abdominal surgery lasting more than twelve hours to resolve an intestinal obstruction. He then stayed in hospital for three weeks to convalesce.
On Sunday, Jair Bolsonaro briefly left the home where he is under house arrest to undergo a skin biopsy.
The Supreme Court sentenced him on Thursday to 27 years in prison following a historic trial in which he was found guilty of conspiring to stay in power, despite his electoral defeat against current left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2022.
But he can only be incarcerated after all possible appeals have been exhausted, and his defense has already announced that it will appeal soon.
Jair Bolsonaro has been under house arrest since August 4 on suspicion of obstructing his trial. In July, he had already been forced to wear an electronic bracelet and the use of social networks had been prohibited.
His supporters are pushing for an amnesty for the former president and hundreds of Bolsonarist sympathizers convicted of attempted coup d’état.
