BRASILIA, March 24 (Reuters) – Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes decided on Tuesday to place former President Jair Bolsonaro back under house arrest on health grounds, a court decision showed.
Bolsonaro, 71, has been serving a 27-year prison sentence since November for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
In the decision, Moraes said the house arrest is going to last for an initial period of 90 days.
“After this period, the presence of the requirements necessary for maintaining humanitarian house arrest will be reassessed, including a medical examination if needed,” the justice wrote.
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 all requests.
The reversal comes after Bolsonaro was admitted earlier this month to the intensive care unit of a Brasilia hospital with an acute form of pneumonia. He has been discharged from the ICU, a Tuesday medical note showed.
(Reporting by Ricardo Brito in Brasilia; Editing by Gabriel Araujo)
