‘Breathlessness, severe vomiting, violent hiccups’: Bolsonaro rushed to hospital after falling ill

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro, convicted last week of leading an attempted coup, will spend the night under observation after being rushed to hospital while under house arrest, his family said.

The 70-year-old former leader on Tuesday experienced a “dramatic episode” of recurring violent hiccup bouts that left him breathless for “almost 10 seconds,” followed by severe vomiting, his son Flavio Bolsonaro told reporters at the hospital.

“He is stable but doesn’t look well,” the senator said of his father, who has had multiple operations in recent years due to complications from a 2018 stabbing in his abdomen while campaigning for president.

AFP saw prison guards at the hospital, where his wife Michelle Bolsonaro said he had received intravenous medication.

The far-right firebrand was convicted last week of plotting to overthrow leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who beat him in 2022 presidential elections.

Bolsonaro’s lawyers have said they will appeal.

After his conviction, he visited the hospital on Sunday to have eight skin lesions removed and sent for biopsies.

His doctor Claudio Birolini said over the weekend the former army captain was “quite weak” and had developed slight anemia, “probably due to poor nutrition over the last month.”

Bolsonaro has been under house arrest since August at his residence in Brasilia.

His lawyers had cited health problems as the reason for Bolsonaro’s absence from the verdict phase of his coup trial, which culminated last week in a conviction by a 4-1 vote, and a 27-year prison sentence.

His US ally President Donald Trump slapped a 50-percent tariff on many Brazilian imports citing a “witch hunt” against Bolsonaro, and the Trump administration sanctioned one of the judges in the trial.

While he awaits the outcome of an appeal process, Bolsonaro’s allies in Congress are pushing for an amnesty to save him from prison.