Former President Jair Bolsonaro was arrested on suspicion of attempting to escape imprisonment for his 27-year sentence after he was caught tampering with his electronic ankle monitor. Federal police believed he was preparing to seek refuge in a foreign embassy to avoid jail time for orchestrating a failed coup.
In a custody hearing, Bolsonaro denied the escape plot, claiming that the damage to the device was instead caused by a drug-induced “psychotic attack.” He testified that a combination of a painkiller and an antidepressant caused hallucinations, convincing him the ankle monitor was secretly recording him.
Skepticism from political observers is intense, fueled by the fact that the former president had previously claimed he damaged the monitor merely “out of curiosity.” His bizarre new explanation involved him using a soldering iron on the device.