Bolsonaro says medications made him tamper with tracking device, triggering detention

Highlights:

• Bolsonaro taking anticonvulsants prescribed by different doctors
• Ex-president denies trying to escape house arrest, remove device
• Judge upholds police custody; Supreme Court panel convenes Monday

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday told a judge that medicine-induced paranoia and hallucination caused him to tamper with an electronic ankle monitor, court records showed, a day after police took him into custody out of fear he might flee.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Bolsonaro's detention on Saturday, after more than 100 days of house arrest, citing potential flight risk as the right-wing leader awaits final appeals of his prison sentence for plotting a coup.

In a 30-minute custody hearing on Sunday, Bolsonaro denied any intent to escape or try to remove the ankle monitor.

He attributed his behavior to a mix of anticonvulsant drugs prescribed by different doctors for his chronic hiccups, which led him to imagine there was listening equipment inside the tracking device.

The 70-year-old former president said he was alone during the episode, as the others in his home at the time – his daughter, his older brother and an adviser – were sleeping.

"The witness stated that, around midnight, he tampered with the ankle bracelet, then 'came to his senses' and stopped using the soldering iron, at which point he informed the officers guarding him," according to the court document seen by Reuters.

The judge overseeing Sunday's hearing decided to keep Bolsonaro in police custody, concluding that the officers had followed all applicable laws during the arrest.

Bolsonaro lawyers seek move to 'humanitarian house arrest'

Bolsonaro is being held in a 12-square-meter cell at federal police headquarters in Brasilia, with a bed, TV, air conditioning and private bathroom. A panel of Supreme Court judges will convene on Monday to consider his case.

His lawyers on Sunday repeated their request for the right-wing former army captain to be kept under "humanitarian house arrest."

US President Donald Trump, who had called Bolsonaro's trial a witch hunt and imposed an extra 40% tariff on many Brazilian goods to counter it, began partially walking that policy back on Thursday, with exemptions for imports of beef, coffee, cocoa and fruits.

On Saturday, Trump told reporters he had been unaware of Bolsonaro's detention. "Is that what happened? That's too bad," he said. He also said he would be meeting again soon with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Bolsonaro's leftist successor.

State Department officials expressed concern about the treatment of Bolsonaro, calling it an attack on the rule of law and political stability.

Bolsonaro faces 27 years in prison for coup conviction

Brazil's top court sentenced Bolsonaro in September to 27 years and three months in prison for plotting a coup to overturn the 2022 election, which he lost to Lula.

He had been kept under house arrest for more than 100 days in Brasilia for violating precautionary measures in a separate case over allegedly courting Trump's interference on his behalf.

Bolsonaro's lawyers have been hoping to convert his sentence into a long-term house arrest due to chronic health issues, part of a wider strategy to blunt the consequences of his conviction for attacking Brazil's democracy.

The former president, who was stabbed in the abdomen during a 2018 campaign event, has a history of hospitalizations and surgeries related to the attack.

"What the case files and the events of the early hours of 22 November show is the extremely delicate state of the former president's health, exactly as described in the medical reports and examinations already included in the files," Bolsonaro's lawyers wrote in a Sunday court filing.

They said events that night were caused by his "illogical behavior" due to an unfortunate combination of medication, age and stress, and that there was no risk of him fleeing.

Bolsonaro supporters see arrest as political persecution

The ex-president was visited on Sunday by his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, who was on her way to a political event in northeast Brazil when he was arrested by police on Saturday.

Supporters of the former president waved banners and flags on Sunday outside the police station where he is being held.

"(He's) a person who hasn't committed any crime. It's simply a political persecution," said Alessandro Almeida, one of the supporters at the site.

Lula defended the Supreme Court on Sunday in response to reporters' questions at the G20 summit in Johannesburg.

"(The Supreme Court) made a decision. He was tried and had every right to the presumption of innocence," the president told reporters. "He will serve the sentence that the court has determined, and everyone knows what he did."