Bolsonaro Granted 90-Day House Arrest Due to Failing Health

Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro was granted permission by a Brazilian Supreme Court justice to serve his 27-year sentence for a coup attempt at home instead of in prison due to failing health, monitored by local police at the upscale gated community where he lives in Brasilia.

The decision by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes followed Bolsonaro's hospitalization since March 13 for pneumonia, one of several health problems the former leader has faced since he was stabbed in 2018 before he was elected president. Bolsonaro was also placed in intensive care for a few days because of kidney problems and other issues. On Tuesday, DF Star hospital said he was in stable condition and did not offer an estimate on when he would be able to return home.

The 71-year-old former far-right president was sentenced to 27 years in prison last September for an attempted coup in 2022. He was also convicted on charges that include leading an armed criminal organization and attempting the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law. He has denied any wrongdoing.

De Moraes initially gave Bolsonaro 90 days of house imprisonment, which is extendable after another medical report. "After that deadline, we will analyze once again whether the necessary requirements for keeping the humanitarian house arrest stand, including a medical examination if necessary," the judge said in his ruling.

Moraes ruled that Bolsonaro will have to wear an ankle monitor again under house arrest and is prohibited from receiving visitors other than his lawyers, family members and doctors, among other restrictions. De Moraes also said Bolsonaro cannot use cellphones or any other means of communication, including those owned by third parties. De Moraes, who oversaw the former president's coup case and is deemed by Bolsonaro's supporters as a foe, also said Bolsonaro will return either to prison or to a hospital if he does not comply with the rules of his house arrest.

Lawyers for the right-wing leader, who governed from 2019 to 2022, had long sought Moraes' permission for him to serve his sentence under "humanitarian house arrest," but the justice had previously denied those requests. The reversal drew an immediate but pointed reaction from Bolsonaro's family. His family questioned the temporary nature of the decision. "He is going home for his health to improve. And then in 90 days if he improves he goes back to the place where his health was getting worse? There's no sense in a temporary house imprisonment. If he improves, he can go back to a battalion," Flávio Bolsonaro told reporters after the ruling.

In a document sent to Moraes on Monday, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet, a Lula appointee, said he supported returning Bolsonaro to house arrest. "It has been demonstrated that the applicant's health condition requires constant and careful attention that the family environment, but not the current prison system, is capable of providing," Gonet wrote.

Days before he started serving his sentence, Bolsonaro was temporarily arrested after he used a soldering iron to break his ankle monitor. De Moraes considered him a flight risk at the time. Bolsonaro later attributed that episode to paranoia induced by his medication. His family had been requesting that the court send him home since he was convicted in November. Bolsonaro was transferred from the local federal police headquarters to a larger cell in January.

De Moraes also banned supporters from setting up camps outside the Solar de Brasília Condominium, where the former president's residence is located.

Bolsonaro governed between 2019 and 2022 and remains popular, polls show. One of his sons, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, says his father chose him to run for the presidency in October. Polls show him in a dead heat with incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Brazil's Supreme Court has historically only reversed house arrest if a detainee's health improves dramatically or if there is a violation of the established rules, such as making public statements, posting on social media or giving interviews to the media. With Bolsonaro barred from phones and social media and his 90-day clock beginning upon hospital discharge, the conditions of his confinement will effectively silence one of South America's most consequential political figures at the precise moment his son is seeking to extend the family's political legacy.