Brazil’s former president Bolsonaro in hospital with abdominal pain

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has been hospitalized due to severe abdominal pain, the opposition leader in the Senate, Rogério Marinho, stated on Friday on X.

The right-wing Bolsonaro, who is currently facing allegations of plotting a coup against the government of his successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula), was seriously injured in September 2018 when he was stabbed in the abdomen by an attacker while campaigning in Juiz de Fora, in the state of Minas Gerais. Since then, he has undergone multiple surgeries.

Marinho accompanied Bolsonaro at a party event in the north-eastern state of Rio Grande do Norte. The former president was initially taken to a municipal hospital in the morning and later transferred by helicopter to a private clinic in the city of Natal.

Bolsonaro lost to Lula in national elections in October 2022.

In March, the Supreme Court allowed charges against Bolsonaro and seven alleged co-conspirators to proceed. If convicted, he could face several years in prison.