Former Brazilian leader Bolsonaro’s health improves and he could serve sentence under house arrest

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was transferred to a regular hospital room in the capital of Brasilia as he recovers from pneumonia, one of his doctors said Monday.

The news of the far-right leader’s improvement came hours after Brazil’s attorney general paved the way for him to be put in house imprisonment instead of being returned to jail.

Bolsonaro, who governed between 2019 and 2022, is serving a 27-year sentence for leading a coup attempt in 2023.

Dr. Brasil Caiado told reporters in Brasilia that there’s no established date for Bolsonaro to be discharged. The former president was hospitalized on March 13 after feeling ill at the Papuda penitentiary in the Brazilian capital. Three days later, the 71-year-old was put in semi-intensive care.

The embattled ex-leader was transferred from the local federal police headquarters to a larger cell in January. His family and allies have repeatedly asked Brazil’s Supreme Court to allow him to carry out his sentence, which he began serving in November, under house arrest.

Attorney General Paulo Gonet agreed with Bolsonaro’s family in a decision published earlier and suggested to Justice Alexandre de Moraes to send the former president home with an ankle monitor to serve his sentence.

“The clinical evolution of the former president, as shown by the medical team that took care of him in the latest incident, recommends” house imprisonment, Gonet said in his decision.

De Moraes, who oversaw Bolsonaro’s coup case, is yet to rule. He often agrees with Gonet’s suggestions.