BRASILIA, May 5, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was discharged from hospital Sunday in Brasilia, according to an AFP reporter, three weeks after undergoing complex abdominal surgery.

Brazil's far-right leader, who has been ordered to stand trial on charges he directed a 2023 coup plot to hold on to power, underwent surgery on April 13 to fix an intestinal obstruction stemming from a stabbing attack suffered during a 2018 rally.

"Thank you, my God, for this miracle," 70-year-old Bolsonaro wrote on X hours before his release. He thanked his doctors and said he was returning home "refreshed."

Members of his medical team said they were impressed by Bolsonaro's recovery from the 12-hour operation -- the latest of several surgeries since the attack.

"He is in very good health" and should return "gradually to a normal life," cardiologist Leandro Echenique told reporters. But he cautioned that the risk of a relapse "is never zero."

Bolsonaro smiled as he walked out of the DF Star clinic to be greeted by cheering supporters.

His "next challenge," he said on X, would be to attend a rally Wednesday in Brasilia.

But his doctors said they have urged him not to take part in person.

"We have advised against it," said Claudio Birolini, the clinic's chief of surgery, according to local media.

The politician had spent 17 days in the clinic's intensive-care ward, undergoing physical therapy and receiving most of his food through a feeding tube. He was transferred Wednesday to the inpatient ward.

Brazil's Supreme Court decided in late March to prosecute Bolsonaro for his role in the alleged coup attempt at the end of his 2019-2022 term.

He is accused of having led a plot to prevent the inauguration of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva after the left-leaning Lula won the 2022 presidential elections.

The rally Bolsonaro wanted to attend on Wednesday was organized to support a call for an amnesty for the former leader's supporters who on January 8, 2023 vandalized key government buildings as they urged the military to block Lula from taking office.