A Brazilian judge allows former President Bolsonaro to leave prison for surgery

SadaNews - Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence for attempted coup since November, has been granted permission to leave prison for a hernia surgery. The date of the surgery has not yet been announced.

The Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes gave the green light to the far-right leader after federal police doctors confirmed his need for the procedure.

Doctors say the hernia affecting Bolsonaro is bilateral and causes him pain.

The former Brazilian president, who was in office from 2019 to 2022, has undergone several other surgeries since he was stabbed in the abdomen during a campaign rally in 2018.

De Moraes, who oversaw Bolsonaro's coup trial and sentenced him to prison, rejected the former president's request to be placed under house arrest after leaving the hospital.

According to authorities, Bolsonaro has no contact with the few other inmates at the federal police headquarters in the capital, Brasília, where he is held in a 12-square-meter room containing a bed, private bathroom, air conditioning, television, and desk.

A panel of Supreme Court judges convicted Bolsonaro and several of his allies of attempting to overthrow Brazilian democracy following his defeat in the 2022 elections.