<figure id="attachment_3042197" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3042197" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-3042197" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/6071b19a-jair-bolsonaro.jpg" alt="Jair Bolsonaro" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3042197" class="wp-caption-text">A supporter of former president Jair Bolsonaro prays outside DF Star Hospital in Brasilia, where he underwent abdominal surgery. (AP pic)</figcaption></figure>
RIO DE JENAIRO: A court official delivered a summons to Brazil&#8217;s far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro in his hospital bed Wednesday, giving him five days to submit his defence against coup charges, in preparation for trial.
Bolsonaro, who lost elections in 2022, has been ordered to stand trial on charges he directed an alleged coup plot to hold onto power.
Earlier this month, he underwent intestinal surgery, necessitated by his ongoing health problems from a 2018 stabbing attack.
The 70-year-old reacted furiously to Wednesday&#8217;s visit in a video on X, proclaiming: &#8220;I have five days to present my defence? Five days?&#8221; He pointed out that he was still in intensive care.
The notification was delivered a day after Bolsonaro appeared in a live YouTube broadcast, seated and with a nasal tube in hospital, along with three of his sons and Brazilian former Formula 1 champion Nelson Piquet.
&#8220;The live broadcast made by the former president yesterday demonstrated that he was able to be summoned and notified today,&#8221; the Brazilian supreme court said in a message sent to AFP.
The five-day deadline is for a filing outlining Bolsonaro&#8217;s defence, specifying the evidence he will be submitting and the witnesses he will call.
Bolsonaro&#8217;s trial will be the first of an ex-leader accused of attempting to take power by force since Brazil&#8217;s return to democracy in 1985 following two decades of military dictatorship.
He risks a 40-year prison sentence and political banishment ahead of presidential elections next year he has been hoping to run in.
Bolsonaro has had recurring health problems since September 2018, when an attacker stabbed the then-candidate at a presidential campaign rally in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
He lost about 40% of his blood and underwent emergency surgery after the attack, which was perpetrated by a man later declared mentally unfit to stand trial.
He went on to win that election, serving a single term until 2022 when he lost a runoff to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva &#8211; who he now stands accused of seeking to unseat.

MatchPoint Times

Brazil’s Bolsonaro receives summons in hospital bed

The former president baulks at the five-day deadline to submit his defence against coup charges before trial begins.

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