Former president Jair Bolsonaro is temporarily released from prison for humanitarian reasons
A Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Tuesday authorized former president Jair Bolsonaro to temporarily serve his prison sentence at home for humanitarian reasons, upon leaving the hospital where he is being treated for bacterial bronchopneumonia, reports AFP, taken by Agerpres.
“I authorize temporary house arrest for humanitarian reasons (…) for an initial period of 90 days,” Judge Alexandre de Moraes said in a court document obtained by AFP, specifying that this period could be extended after medical evaluations, “if necessary.”
Sentenced last September to 27 years in prison for the coup attempt, 71-year-old Jair Bolsonaro has been serving his sentence since mid-January in the Papuda prison complex in Brasilia.
“Thank God!”, his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, reacted on Instagram shortly after the publication of the judge's decision.
The former far-right president (2019-2022) was admitted to a private clinic in the Brazilian capital on March 13 after he showed signs of illness in prison.
On Monday, his lawyers' request for house arrest for humanitarian reasons already received a favorable opinion from the prosecutor's office. However, several similar requests had been rejected by Judge Moraes in recent months.
According to the medical team, Bolsonaro's respiratory infection is the result of an episode of bronchoaspiration, a recurring problem related to the aftermath of a stab wound to the abdomen during a campaign rally in 2018.
Since then, the former president has undergone numerous operations and has frequent bouts of hiccups, sometimes accompanied by vomiting, which his doctors have identified as the direct cause of the current infection.
