SAO PAULO, April 11, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Brazil's far-right former president 
Jair Bolsonaro, who was stabbed at an election rally in 2018, was rushed to 
hospital by helicopter on Friday with "severe pain" in his abdomen, a party 
spokesman said.

Bolsonaro, 70, was at a party event in the northeastern state of Rio Grande 
do Norte when he started feeling unwell "linked to the 2018 stabbing," the 
spokesman told AFP.

He was brought to a local hospital and then flown by helicopter to another, 
bigger facility in the state capital, Natal.

Bolsonaro has had recurring health problems since September 2018, when an 
attacker stabbed the then-candidate at a campaign rally in the southeastern 
state of Minas Gerais.

Bolsonaro lost some 40 percent of his blood and underwent emergency surgery 
after the near-fatal attack, perpetrated by a man later declared mentally 
unfit to stand trial.

The former president has undergone at least four surgeries since his 
stabbing, including the placement and subsequent removal of a colostomy bag, 
which made him prone to intestinal disorders.

He has also undergone other unrelated procedures during his presidency, 
including surgery to remove a bladder stone.

Bolsonaro, who is hoping to make a comeback in the 2026 presidential 
elections despite being barred from running, was set to start a tour of Rio 
Grande do Norte on Friday.

He has been ordered to stand trial for an alleged coup plot after elections 
in 2022 that he lost to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.