Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced to prison last week for plotting a coup, has been rushed to hospital after falling ill while under house arrest, his son said
The emergency visit on Tuesday is the 70-year-old former army captain’s second trip to the hospital since his conviction.
Bolsonaro, who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2023, has had recurring intestinal issues since he was stabbed while campaigning in 2018, including at least six related surgeries, the last being a 12-hour-long procedure in April.
“Bolsonaro felt unwell a short while ago, with a severe bout of hiccups, vomiting, and low blood pressure,” his son, Flavio, wrote on X.
“He was taken to DF Star [Hospital] accompanied by correctional police officers who guard his home in Brasília, as it was an emergency,” he wrote.
Bolsonaro visited the same hospital on Sunday, and had eight skin lesions removed and sent for biopsies.
A panel of Supreme Court justices on Thursday found the former leader guilty of plotting a coup after he lost the 2022 election to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
They sentenced him to 27 years and three months in prison.
The ruling, however, does not immediately send him to jail. The court panel has up to 60 days to publish the ruling after the decision, and once it does, Bolsonaro’s lawyers have five days to file motions for clarification.
Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing and said he is the victim of political persecution. United States President Donald Trump has also called the trial a “witch-hunt”, and imposed tariffs of 50 percent on Brazilian goods, citing the case against Bolsonaro, among other issues.
The former Brazilian leader has been under house arrest since August for allegedly courting pressure on the courts from Trump. He had already been wearing an ankle monitor.
Separately on Tuesday, a federal court ordered Bolsonaro to pay 1 million reais ($188,865) in damages for collective moral harm stemming from racist comments he made while in office.
The inquiry originated from Bolsonaro’s statements to a Black supporter who approached him in May 2021 and asked to take a picture.
The former president joked, saying he was seeing a cockroach in the man’s hair. He also compared the man’s hairstyle with a “cockroach breeding ground”, implying the hair was unclean.
There was no immediate comment from his legal team after the latest court order.
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