Physicians for ailing former President Jair Bolsonaro reported on September 17, 2025, that they found early-stage cancer in skin lesions taken from the 70-year-old politician after his conviction last week of attempted coup charges.
Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest in Brasilia until his sentencing is complete, has been hospitalized twice since the court ruling on Thursday. He was taken to the DF Star hospital on Sunday to have eight lesions removed so they could be tested, and again on Tuesday due to vomiting and low blood pressure, before being discharged on Wednesday.
Findings revealed stage skin cancer in two of the lesions, physicians announced in a statement Wednesday, noting that Bolsonaro will require clinical surveillance and frequent reevaluation.
“My dad has already battled harder and emerged victorious. This one won’t be different,” Bolsonaro’s eldest son Flávio said in a post on X. “Rest assured, this is the consequence of the tireless persecution since Jair Bolsonaro had the courage to confront the system head-on and fight for Brazil.”
A Supreme Court panel of judges on Thursday convicted the former leader of trying a coup to illegally stay in power even after his defeat in the 2022 elections to incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. They handed him down a jail term of 27 years and three months.
The sentence doesn’t land Bolsonaro in jail straight away. The court panel has between 60 days to release the ruling after the verdict. After it does, five days are given to Bolsonaro’s lawyers to petition for clarification.
Bolsonaro has rejected allegations of wrongdoing and claimed he is the victim of political persecution. U.S. President Donald Trump has concurred and labeled the trial a “witch hunt,” and in July, he placed tariffs of 50% on Brazilian exports, citing the Bolsonaro case among other reasons.
The ex-president, since early August, has been subject to house arrest ordered by the court that is managing the case, Alexandre de Moraes, who stated Bolsonaro had disobeyed precautionary actions ordered against him in relation to the trial.
Bolsonaro had already been under an ankle monitor, a measure imposed after Federal Police reported that he and his lawmaker son, Eduardo, had been cooperating with U.S. authorities to get sanctions imposed on Brazilian public officials for alleged persecution.
In late August, de Moraes ramped up security measures even more and directed that police stop and inspect all cars departing Bolsonaro’s home and observe outside the house.
Bolsonaro has been hospitalized several times since he was stabbed at a campaign rally prior to the 2018 presidential election. He had surgery in April for a bowel obstruction.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers will likely advance his poor health as an argument in a plea for house arrest, as opposed to requiring him to serve the sentence in a detention facility.
