Justice questions Bolsonaro’s request to leave prison for surgery and orders to evaluate his medical situation

Bolsonaro, 70, is serving a 27-year prison sentence for attempting a coup d’état in 2022 against his successor, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

On Tuesday, the former president’s defense requested permission for his doctors to perform two interventions of “immediate” due to the deterioration of his health.

In response, Judge Alexandre de Moraes noted “that the medical examinations presented by the defense they are not updated“.

“The most recent one was performed three months ago, without the doctors indicating at that time the need for immediate surgical intervention,” Moraes said in a document obtained by AFP.

He also recalled that on November 22, when he entered prison in Brasilia, Bolsonaro was subjected to “a forensic medical examinationin which no medical condition was recorded that would indicate the need for immediate surgical intervention.”

The judge ordered that the police carry out “an official medical examination” in the next 15 days “to evaluate the need for immediate surgical intervention indicated by the defense” of Bolsonaro.

The former president (2019-2022) was under house arrest and was sent to prison for flight risk after trying to burn the anklet that controlled his location.

Bolsonaro’s lawyers requested authorization for two procedures: a “phrenic nerve anesthetic block” to treat recurrent hiccups, and surgery to repair an inguinal hernia.

Both interventions require hospitalization for five to seven days and general anesthesia, they said.

The far-right leader suffers permanent consequences from a stab wound to the belly that he received in 2018 during a campaign event for the presidential elections.

The defense also asked that Bolsonaro return to “humanitarian” house arrest due to his state of health.

Meanwhile, parliament is processing a bill that could reduce Bolsonaro’s prison sentence to two years and four months.

The initiative was approved on Wednesday in the Chamber of Deputies after a chaotic debate that came to shoving. The Senate will evaluate the project starting next Wednesday.

The Bolsonarist parliamentarians insist on requesting a total amnesty for the far-right leader, and consider the reduction of sentences as a first step in that direction.

If approved by the Senate, Lula could veto the law.

“Let’s see what happens, when I get to my desk, I will make the decision,” Lula said this Thursday when asked about a possible presidential veto on the reduction of sentences.

Bolsonaro “has to pay for the attempted coup d’état, for trying to destroy democracy in this country,” Lula said in an interview with a local TV channel.

Bolsonaro was found guilty of hatch a plot to cast doubt on the transparency of the 2022 elections and declare a state of exception and prevent Lula’s inauguration. It failed due to lack of support from senior military commanders.

The project being studied by parliament would also benefit a hundred convicted Bolsonaristas for the riot against the headquarters of public powers on January 8, 2023 in Brasilia.

The trial against Bolsonaro strained relations between Washington and Brasilia. President Donald Trump called it a “witch hunt” against his ally.

The situation began to improve after a meeting in October between Trump and Lula in Malaysia, after which both presidents They talked several times on the phone.

However, this Thursday the State Department praised the bill.

“The United States has repeatedly expressed its concern about attempts to use the legal process to instrumentalize political differences in Brazil, and therefore welcomes the bill (…) as a first step in addressing these abuses,” wrote US Undersecretary of State Christopher Landau in X.