FORMER Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro claimed he fiddled with his ankle tag due to “hallucinations” and a “nervous breakdown”.
The populist leader, 70, was cuffed on Saturday for allegedly planning to escape house arrest – days before starting a lengthy prison sentence for a coup plot.
Bolsonaro had been under strict house arrest since August but was dramatically thrown behind bars in Brasilia this weekend.
Authorities said it was a preventative measure to stop an escape attempt suspected to have been planned for later that day.
A judge said: “[Bolsonaro] said he had ‘hallucinations’ that there was some wiretap in the ankle monitoring, so he tried to uncover it.
The ex-leader said he “did not remember having a breakdown of this magnitude on another occasion”.
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He even suggested it might have been sparked by a change in his medication last week.
The veteran politician also vehemently denied that he attempted to escape.
Bolsonaro was previously sentenced to 27 years behind bars after being convicted of a coup plot which involved poisoning the current president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The former South American leader claimed he hadn’t been sleeping well and had felt a “certain paranoia” before messing with his ankle device.
The judge added: “[Bolsonaro] said he was with his daughter, his elder brother and an aide at his house and none of them saw what he was doing to the ankle monitoring.
“He said he started to touch it late at night and stopped around midnight.”
Bolsonaro’s ankle tag was violated at 12:08am on Saturday, suggesting it had been tampered with.
Officers swooped in hours later to make the arrest at around 6am, and Bolsonaro was taken to the Federal Police headquarters.
A group of the former president’s supporters were camping around the house and a rally was planned for later in the day, organised by his son.
Supreme Judge Alexandre de Moraes suspected that Bolsonaro was planning to use the commotion as cover to escape.
De Moraes said Bolsonaro was a “high flight risk” because of his previous conviction.
He said that a group of Bolsonaro’s supporters who had set up camp around the house also posed a security risk – because they made it harder for police to monitor the house arrest.
De Moraes said: “That information shows the intent of the convict to break the ankle monitoring to assure his escape is successful, which would be made easier by the confusion that would be caused by a demonstration organised by his son.”
He added: “The tumult caused by an illegal gathering of the convict’s supporters has a strong chance of putting at risk the house arrest and other precautionary measures, allowing for his eventual escape.”
The judge also said that Bolsonaro had previously considered seeking asylum in the Argentine embassy in Brasilia.
One of his sons and other close allies have already fled Brasil to escape the reach of the courts, it was noted.
In response, Bolsonaro’s lawyers said his detention caused “deep perplexity”.
They said the planned “prayer vigil” was protected by the Brazilian Constitution under the right to religious freedom.
The lawyers added: “Despite claiming the ‘existence of very serious evidence of a possible escape,’ the fact is that the former president was arrested at his home, with an electronic ankle monitor and under police surveillance.”
Moraes’s decision will be submitted to a Supreme Court panel for confirmation on Monday.
This is the same panel that voted 4-1 to convict him in September.
Bolsonaro was sentenced in September to 27 years and three months in prison for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 presidential election to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
However, the courts have not yet issued a final arrest order in that case, as Bolsonaro is still appealing.
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He was put under house arrest more than 100 days ago for violating conditions of a separate case – for allegedly seeking US help to stop the criminal case.
Donald Trump, who had warm relations with Bolsonaro when they were both in power, has condemned the case as a “witch hunt”.
