A Brazilian Supreme Court justice approved ex-president Jair Bolsonaro’s plea yesterday to serve his sentence under home arrest for a short time once he is released from the hospital where he is being treated for bronchopneumonia.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes wrote in a court document that our reporter got that he “authorizes temporary humanitarian house arrest… for an initial period of 90 days.” He also noted that this period could be extended if it is medically necessary.
According to AFP, the 71-year-old former far-right president was sentenced to 27 years in prison last September for trying to overthrow the government in 2022.
“Thanks, God!” Michelle Bolsonaro, his wife, posted on Instagram not long after the judge’s decision was made public.
Bolsonaro had been in prison at the Papuda correctional complex in Brasilia since the middle of January. He fell unwell in his cell and was sent to a private clinic in the city on March 13.
On Monday, he was moved to a standard in-patient room after being in the hospital for more than a week.
The medical team says that Bolsonaro’s illness is the result of a bronchial aspiration episode that happened because of a stab wound to the abdomen he got while running for president in 2018.
He chose his oldest son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, to run for president in October while he was in prison.
Some polls show that the younger Bolsonaro and the leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is running for a fourth term, are neck and neck with less than seven months to go.
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