Brazil's lower house of Congress approved a bill early on Wednesday that could drastically reduce the sentence of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who has been serving 27 years in jail for staging a coup.
If ratified by the Senate, the 70-year-old far-right leader, who has been behind bars since late November, could see his sentence cut to just over two years.
Earlier, defence lawyers for Bolsonaro requested on Tuesday his removal from jail to a hospital for "surgical procedures", according to a document seen by Reuters.
The lawyers also reaffirmed their request for the former leader to serve his sentence under "humanitarian house arrest."
Last month, Bolsonaro began serving his sentence for unsuccessfully plotting a coup against his successor, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, after losing the 2022 election.
He is being held at a Federal Police Superintendency in Brasilia.
This is a developing story and it will be updated…
