BRASÍLIA - Brazil’s ex-president Jair Bolsonaro left his home where he is under house arrest to undergo medical exams on Saturday, weeks before the Supreme Court rules whether he is guilty of plotting a coup. The right-wing firebrand is accused of attempting to hold onto power despite his 2022 electoral defeat by current leftist leader, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro, 70, has been under house arrest since early August for violating a judicial ban on using social networks to plead his case to the public.
A judge agreed to temporarily lift that measure so he could get medical attention for what Bolsonaro’s attorneys said were gastrointestinal problems resulting from a 2018 stabbing attack while he campaigned for president. In particular, their request noted his chronic “reflux and hiccup symptoms” and need to go to hospital for tests, including an intestinal endoscopy. Doctor Leandro Echenique told journalists outside the hospital that the tests showed Bolsonaro recently had two bouts of pneumonia. “He is making a good recovery,” the doctor added.
Claudio Birolini, who was Bolsonaro’s surgeon from 2019 to 2022, said “everything is in order,” but the ex-president continues to suffer from inflammation of the esophagus and some reflux. “The fact that he is home now hinders his physical activity a little, so we are suggesting that he intensify his weight training exercises...because he cannot walk, he cannot do anything like that,” the surgeon said.