Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro told a judge today that he broke the integrity of his electronic monitoring bracelet attached to his ankle while under house arrest due to a nervous breakdown and hallucinations caused by a change in his medication, the Associated Press reported.
This led to his being sent to prison yesterday.
Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes yesterday ordered the preventive detention of the 70-year-old politician because he is considered a flight risk. Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison in September for attempting a coup to stay in office after his defeat in the 2022 election.
“Bolsonaro said he hallucinated that there was a cable in his ankle monitor, so he tried to find it,“ said Associate Justice Luciana Sorrentino, according to a Supreme Court document released today shortly after her online meeting with the former president.
Sorrentino added that Bolsonaro told her that his actions may have been caused by a change in his medication last week. He again denied that he intended to flee.
The document also says that Bolsonaro told the judge that he had not slept well and was experiencing "some paranoia" that stimulated his curiosity and that is why he opened the ankle monitor.
“Bolsonaro stated that he was with his daughter, his older brother and an assistant at his home and none of them saw what he was doing with the ankle monitor,“ the document says.
De Moraes received information that the far-right leader's ankle monitor had been tampered with at 12:08 a.m. yesterday. The arrest warrant was issued hours later.
In September, a panel of Brazil's Supreme Court ruled that Bolsonaro had attempted to stage a coup and retain the presidency after his election defeat in 2022.
On Monday, the same panel will vote on the preventive arrest warrant.
Bolsonaro's meeting with an assistant judge on Sunday was procedural, to discuss the legality of his detention, but it also provided another opportunity for his lawyers to argue that he should remain under house arrest due to poor health. De Moraes has rejected such requests before.