Bolsonaro rushed to hospital for second time since his coup trial conviction

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been taken to a hospital in Brasilia after feeling sick, according to his son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro.

The younger Bolsonaro said on Tuesday his father experienced "severe hiccups, vomiting, and low blood pressure."

He confirmed that his father was taken to the hospital in an "emergency" and was accompanied by prison guards from his home in the capital city.

"I ask for everyone's prayers that it is nothing serious," he said.

A house arrest order issued by Federal Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes allows Bolsonaro to seek emergency medical care, but requires him to provide medical proof for his release within 24 hours.

Lawyers for Bolsonaro are expected to put his ill health forward as an argument in a plea for house arrest, rather than obliging him to serve the sentence in a detention centre.

'Signs of pneumonia'

It was his second hospitalisation in the last week, after the former president was treated on Sunday for skin lesions. A hospital report noted that a surgical procedure was performed under local anaesthesia to remove eight lesions from his torso and right arm. Recent laboratory tests also showed Bolsonaro is anaemic, and a chest CT scan revealed "residual signs of recent pneumonia."

Bolsonaro has been under house arrest since August 4 by court order from de Moraes.

It was implemented after the former president allegedly failed to comply with previously imposed restrictions, including a ban on social media use.

The Federal Supreme Court sentenced Bolsonaro last Thursday to 27 years and three months in prison for participating in a coup plot.

It was the first time in Brazil's history that a former president received a sentence for a coup.

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Source: TRT