Brazil’s jailed ex-president Bolsonaro hospitalised with lung infection

News|Elections

Brazilian far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, imprisoned for plotting a coup after he lost the country’s last election, is receiving treatment in an intensive care unit after being hospitalised with bronchopneumonia.

The DF Star hospital in Brasilia said in a statement on Saturday that the 70-year-old was in a stable condition despite being diagnosed with worsening kidney function.

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The hospital added that there was no timeline yet for the ex-president’s discharge.

Bolsonaro, who led Brazil from 2019 to 2023, was admitted to the hospital the day before with a high fever, a drop in oxygen saturation, sweating and chills.

The former president, who is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting an alleged coup, has been susceptible to bouts of bronchopneumonia, a condition caused by gastric material being inhaled into the respiratory tract.

He was stabbed in the abdomen at a campaign rally in 2018 and has had medical issues since.

His lawyers have requested that he be allowed to live under house arrest on account of his need for medical attention, but Brazil’s Supreme Court has rejected the petitions.

Bolsonaro was convicted in September last year of trying to overturn his 2022 election loss against left-wing leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the current president of Brazil.

The charges against him included leading an armed criminal organisation and attempting the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law. Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing.

The far-right firebrand, an ally of United States President Donald Trump, remains a central figure in Brazil despite his imprisonment.

In December, he designated one of his sons, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, as his chosen successor to challenge Lula in the next presidential election, slated for October.

Flavio Bolsonaro told journalists in Brasilia that his father was in a “stable” condition.

“Unfortunately, we have to learn how to live with this. It is not the first, the second or the third time my father is hospitalised because of the problems coming from the stabbing,” the presidential candidate said this week.

The 2018 stabbing attack has led to numerous operations for Bolsonaro as well as other health problems, including persistent hiccups and vomiting.