Brazil's former president, Jair Bolsonaro, has claimed that a nervous breakdown and hallucinations led him to try and prise open his electronic ankle tag, an incident that resulted in his swift detention by authorities.
The Incident and Official Account
The 70-year-old far-right leader, who was under house arrest after being convicted for leading a coup attempt, reportedly tried to open the monitoring device with a soldering iron in the early hours of last Saturday.
According to a Supreme Court document published on Sunday, Bolsonaro told an assistant judge during an online meeting that he experienced 'hallucinations' that there was a wiretap in the ankle monitor, which prompted him to try and uncover it.
The legal document further stated that the former president reported feeling 'a certain paranoia' that sparked his curiosity about the device's workings. He claimed this was the first time he could recall having a breakdown of such magnitude and speculated that a recent change in his medication may have been the cause.
Denial of Escape Attempt and Immediate Aftermath
Despite the tampering, Bolsonaro has strongly denied any intention to escape. He stated to the judge that he was at home with his daughter, elder brother, and an aide during the incident, and that none of them saw what he was doing.
He described beginning to touch the tag late at night and stopping around midnight. However, the Supreme Court received an alert that the tag had been violated at 12.08am on Saturday.
Deeming him a flight risk, the court ordered his detention just hours later. This move came just days before he was expected to be transferred from house arrest to begin serving his 27-year jail sentence.
Current Status and Legal Arguments
Bolsonaro is now being held at the federal police headquarters in Brasilia. His wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, visited him there on Sunday morning.
His meeting with the assistant judge was a procedural step, but it also provided his legal team with another opportunity to argue that he should remain under house arrest due to ill health. Similar requests have been rejected by the court in the past.
The incident has cast a new spotlight on the legal proceedings against the former president, whose conviction stems from his actions following his loss in Brazil's 2022 election.
