Brazilian Supreme Court says Bolsonaro can leave prison to undergo surgery 

The Brazilian Supreme Court has approved a request from former President Jair Bolsonaro to temporarily leave prison for a medical procedure later this week.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes said on Tuesday that Bolsonaro, serving a 27-year prison sentence for participation in a coup plot, can undergo hernia surgery on Thursday.

Bolsonaro’s lawyers had requested that he be transferred to Hospital DF Star in the capital, Brasilia, for medical tests on Wednesday and surgery the next day. Doctors said a hernia was causing him pain in both sides of his groin.

The ex-president has undergone a series of hospitalisations and medical procedures since being stabbed in the abdomen during a campaign event in 2018. His hospital visit will be the first time he has departed from federal custody since beginning his sentence towards the end of November.

The court ordered the police to continue monitoring Bolsonaro “24 hours a day”.

The far-right leader was scheduled to speak to the news outlet Metropoles on Tuesday, but cancelled the interview due to health reasons.

Since Bolsonaro’s imprisonment, there has been speculation that his eldest son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, could succeed him as the leader of the country’s political right. Some had expected Bolsonaro to throw his support behind his son’s 2026 presidential bid during the Tuesday interview.

In a social media post, Flavio said his father would have liked to conduct the interview but had to put “health first”.

“He is about to be hospitalised for surgery,” said Flavio. “Some days he wakes up feeling well, other days worse. Today may have been a day when he woke up feeling more unwell.”

Bolsonaro had previously requested that he serve his sentence under house arrest, which Moraes denied. He is being held in the federal police headquarters in Brasilia, where authorities say he is free to convene with doctors and legal representatives and does not have contact with other prisoners there.