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Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro underwent a medical procedure on Saturday to treat recurrent hiccups he has been dealing with for months, according to his medical team.The 70-year-old ex-president, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence for an attempted coup, had been released from prison on Wednesday to undergo surgery for a groin hernia at the DF Star Hospital in Brasilia.That surgery was performed on Thursday without incident, and Bolsonaro remained hospitalised for several days for evaluation.During that time, Bolsonaro's medical team determined it was necessary to perform an anesthetic block of the phrenic nerve – which controls the diaphragm – to treat his recurring hiccups.**media[398751]**Bolsonaro's doctor, Claudio Birolini, told reporters on Thursday that the procedure involved locating the nerve using an ultrasound machine and then injecting it with a local analgesic.The procedure on Saturday "went well", according to another of the doctors, Mateus Saldanha.Birolini said the process took about an hour, adding that "it's not surgery... it does not involve any incisions”.The right side of the nerve was treated on Saturday, and a procedure to treat the left side of the nerve is set Monday."My love just went to the surgical centre to have his phrenic nerve blocked," former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro wrote in an Instagram post on Saturday. "It's been nine months of struggle and anguish with daily hiccups."**media[398752]**The far-right former president, who was in power from 2019-2022, has for years been dealing with the aftermath of an abdominal stab wound he suffered during a 2018 campaign rally, requiring several major surgeries.In September, Brazil's Supreme Court found Bolsonaro guilty of conspiring to stay in power after losing the 2022 election to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and handed him a 27-year prison sentence.The coup failed due to a lack of support from top military brass.The far-right ex-president has claimed his innocence, claiming that he was being persecuted by the Supreme Court.Bolsonaro was under house arrest from August until his imprisonment on November 22.Once discharged from the hospital, Bolsonaro will return to serving his sentence at a federal police jail in the capital.Brazil's Supreme Court on Saturday also ordered house arrest for 10 officials from Bolsonaro's administration who were involved in planning the coup plot, sought legal justification for it, or spread disinformation about it on social media.The 10 officials had been convicted but were out of prison due to pending appeals.One of the officials, Silvinei Vasques, was detained in Paraguay on Friday after he allegedly tried to board a flight with false papers. 

The defence team of Brazilian ex-president Jair Bolsonaro told the close of his trial for coup plotting Wednesday that an acquittal was "imperative" to avoid what it presented as a potential miscarriage of justice."An acquittal is absolutely imperative so that we don't have our version of the Dreyfus case," lawyer Paulo Cunha Bueno told the Supreme Court, referring to the infamous case of a Jewish French army captain wrongly convicted of treason in 1894.Bolsonaro, also a former army captain, risks up to 43 years in prison if convicted of trying to cling onto power after losing 2022 elections to his leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.The court is set to deliver its verdict next week in a case which has sparked the ire of US President Donald Trump, an ally of Bolsonaro.The Trump administration has imposed 50% tariffs on a range of Brazilian goods and sanctioned the judge presiding over what the US leader has called a "witch hunt."On Tuesday, the judge presiding over Bolsonaro's trial, Alexandre de Moraes, accused the 70-year-old former far-right leader of seeking to install a "true dictatorship." Bolsonaro, who served a single term from 2019 to 2022, denies the charges.He insists he is the victim of political persecution and has declined to attend the verdict deliberations.Prosecutors accuse him of having led a "criminal organization" that conspired to claw power back from Lula.They say that, after his election defeat, Bolsonaro plotted to declare a state of emergency and call new elections but failed to win the support of the military top brass.Prosecutors also allege that he knew of a plot to assassinate Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin and Moraes."There is not a single shred of evidence linking him" to the alleged coup plot, another of his lawyers, Celso Vilardi, told the court.Vilardi also questioned the plea bargain reached by the prosecution with one of Bolsonaro's co-defendants who turned state witness, Mauro Cid.Much of the state's case rests on the testimony provided by Bolsonaro's former right-hand man.The defence says the case contains parallels with the Dreyfus affair, whose conviction went down in history as a example of judicial bias.Unlike the Bolsonaro case, however, the Dreyfus affair was underpinned by anti-Semitism.As the trial wraps up, negotiations are accelerating in Congress on an amnesty bill which, if passed, could see Bolsonaro avoid prison even if convicted."We will work for a broad, general, and unlimited amnesty," Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the former president's son, told reporters on Tuesday.An amnesty would also potentially benefit hundreds of "Bolsonaristas" convicted over the January 8, 2023 storming of the Supreme Court, presidential palace and Congress.Bolsonaro was in the United States at the time but is accused of inciting the rioters, who called for the military to depose Lula a week after his return to power.