By Rodrigo Viga Gaier
RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Lawyers for former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro asked the country’s Supreme Court to allow him to be hospitalized on Wednesday to undergo a surgical procedure, a document seen by Reuters showed on Tuesday.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes last week authorized Bolsonaro to leave prison – where he is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup – to undergo surgery to treat a hernia, but a date had not been set.
According to the document, if approved Bolsonaro would be admitted to the DF Star hospital in Brasilia for tests on Wednesday and would undergo surgery the next day.
The former president, who was stabbed in the abdomen during a 2018 campaign event, has a history of hospitalizations and surgeries related to the attack.
Earlier on Tuesday, the right-wing leader canceled a planned interview with news outlet Metropoles, citing health reasons, the outlet reported. Moraes had authorized him to give the interview from prison.
Financial markets have been closely watching as Bolsonaro was expected to formally endorse his eldest son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, for a 2026 presidential bid.
“He is about to be hospitalized for surgery – some days he wakes up feeling well, other days worse. Today may have been a day when he woke up feeling more unwell,” the senator said in a video posted on social media.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Additional reporting by Gabriel Araujo, Luciana Magalhaes and Fabricio de Castro; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
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