(FILES) Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is pictured before boarding an ambulance as he leaves Rio Grande Hospital in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte state, Brazil, on April 12, 2025. (Photo by Jose ALDENIR / AFP)
Brasília: Brazilian ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, recovering from intestinal surgery, has had a health setback a day after he was served a court summons in his hospital bed, his medical team said Thursday.
The 70-year-old has "shown a clinical worsening, an increase in blood pressure and worsening of liver laboratory tests," said the DF Star hospital in Brasilia, where the far-right former leader has been convalescing since mid-April.
On Wednesday, a court official visited Bolsonaro in hospital and delivered a summons giving him five days to submit his initial defense against coup charges, in preparation for trial.
A video of the exchange showed Bolsonaro reacting furiously, exclaiming: "I have five days to present my defense? Five days?" while pointing out he was still in intensive care. Nurses urged him to relax as his blood pressure rose.
Bolsonaro, who lost elections in 2022, has been ordered to stand trial on charges he directed an alleged coup plot to hold on to power.
Earlier this month, he underwent intestinal surgery, necessitated by ongoing health problems from a 2018 stabbing attack.
Bolsonaro will undergo fresh medical tests on Thursday, the hospital said.
A day before the summons was delivered, Bolsonaro had appeared for nearly an hour in a live YouTube broadcast -- sitting upright with a nasal tube -- alongside three of his sons and Brazilian Formula 1 champion, Nelson Piquet.
This was despite doctors' recommendations that he not receive visitors.
The live broadcast "demonstrated that he was able to be summoned and notified," the Brazilian Supreme Court said in a message sent to AFP Wednesday.
The five-day deadline is for a filing outlining Bolsonaro's defense, specifying the evidence he will be submitting and the witnesses he will call.
Bolsonaro's trial will be the first of an ex-leader accused of attempting to take power by force since Brazil'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 percent 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 -- who he now stands accused of seeking to unseat.
