Former President Jair Bolsonaro asks to serve house arrest in Brazil

In response to health concerns, former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s lawyers requested that Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes grant him the right to serve his 27-year prison sentence while he is currently house-administering.

Bolsonaro’s lawyers claimed in a document released by the Reuters news agency on Friday that the former president’s persistent intestinal problems would render prison life-threatening.

While campaigning in the state of Minas Gerais in 2018, he had been stabbed in the stomach.

The petitioner’s physical integrity and even his life would be directly and immediately harmed, according to the document, “without a doubt.” On humanitarian grounds, it requested house arrest.

A five-judge panel from Brazil’s Supreme Court sentenced Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison in September. After losing the 2022 election to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, he was found guilty of plotting a coup to hold onto power.

In a separate case, the former right-wing leader allegedly courted American interference to halt the criminal proceedings against him, he has already been placed under house arrest for violating precautionary measures.

After the Supreme Court panel rejected an appeal filed by the former president’s legal team, Bolsonaro’s arrest appeared to be imminent, according to court sources.

His attorneys promised to file a new appeal, but they argued that once all previous ones are exhausted, Bolsonaro should start serving time in house arrest.

They noted that the top court earlier this year, after he was sentenced to almost nine years in prison on corruption and money laundering charges, let 76-year-old former president Fernando de Mello go on house arrest due to his age and health issues, including Parkinson’s disease.

According to Bolsonaro’s legal team, “a serious or sudden illness is not a question of “if,” but rather “when,” according to recent medical tests on the subject.

Carlos, one of Bolsonaro’s sons, claimed on Friday that the former president was constantly vomiting and experiencing severe hiccups. On the social media platform X, he wrote, “I’ve never seen him like this.”

Bolsonaro, who oversaw Brazil between 2019 and 2022, was found guilty of five crimes, including organizing a coup, attempting to obliterate democracy with force, and other crimes.