The 70-year-old former leader will move to a special detention unit with a kitchen, private outdoor area and a double bed at a prison complex in the capital Brasilia, according to a ruling seen by AFP.

Brazil’s Supreme Court convicted Bolsonaro last year of plotting a coup to cling to power following his narrow 2022 re-election loss to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, sentencing him to over 27 years in prison.

Prosecutors said the scheme failed because of a lack of support from military brass.

The former president has thus far been serving his sentence in a room at a federal police facility in the capital.

Bolsonaro’s lawyers have appealed, in vain, for him to be permitted house arrest, on health grounds.

The former army captain, who has suffered serious health complications related to a 2018 stabbing on the campaign trail, spent a week in hospital in December following surgery for a groin hernia and treatment for recurring hiccups.

Brazil’s Congress late last year passed a law which would have dramatically reduced Bolsonaro’s sentence, however, leftist President Lula vetoed the legislation on Jan 8.