Brazil’s Bolsonaro Granted Prison Leave for Christmas Surgery by Supreme Court
Brazil’s ex‑leader Jair Bolsonaro has been authorised to leave incarceration for a scheduled surgical procedure on Christmas Day after Brazil’s highest court granted his request. According to official filings, with Supreme Court Justice, Alexandre de Moraes approving a transfer to a medical facility for hernia repair. Bolsonaro, 70, is serving a 27‑year term for involvement in a plot to overturn the 2022 election results, and he has experienced ongoing health issues since being stabbed in 2018, including a major intestinal operation earlier this year and a court order in November requiring continuous medical supervision. While his son Flávio shared a video urging support for his father on social media, and in recent weeks large crowds protested a legislative measure to shorten Bolsonaro’s sentence that was passed by the lower chamber and that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has pledged to veto, even as former US President Donald Trump, who had criticised the legal actions against Bolsonaro and called them unjust, praised the bill and the United States rescinded sanctions previously placed on Justice Moraes.
