Name: Bolsonaro blames medication for ankle monitor tampering
Uploaded: 2025-11-24T10:40:09.382Z
Duration: 2 min 25 s
Description: Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday (November 23) 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.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday (November 23) 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.

Brasília

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stated in court that paranoia and hallucinations caused by prescribed medication led him to tamper with his electronic ankle monitor. According to court records, Bolsonaro denied any intent to escape and attributed his actions to anti-convulsant drugs taken for chronic hiccups, which made him believe the device contained listening equipment.

Bolsonaro was detained after more than 100 days of house arrest, as he awaits final appeals on a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup. His lawyers have requested humanitarian house arrest due to his health, while supporters protested outside the police station, claiming political persecution. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defended the Supreme Court's actions at the G20 summit.

Bolsonaro blames medication for ankle monitor tampering

Bolsonaro! Bolsonaro! 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. That is according to court records and came a day after police took him into custody out of fear he might flee. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Bolsonaro's detention after more than 100 days of house arrest. As the right-wing leader awaits final appeals of his 27-year 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 blamed his behaviour on a mix of anti-convulsant drugs prescribed by doctors for his chronic hiccups, which led him to imagine there was listening equipment inside the tracking device. Bolsonaro tampered with the ankle bracelet using a soldering iron, but then came to his senses and stopped, at which point he informed the officers guarding him, according to the court documents seen by Reuters. The judge overseeing Sunday's hearing decided to keep Bolsonaro in police custody, ruling that the officers had followed all applicable laws during the arrest. He is now being held in a 12-square-metre cell at Federal Police Headquarters in Brasilia. A panel of Supreme Court judges will convene on Monday to consider his case. His lawyers on Sunday repeated a request for Bolsonaro to be kept under humanitarian house arrest, citing his delicate state of health, as described in previously submitted medical reports. They said events that night were caused by his illogical behaviour due to an unfortunate combination of medication, age and stress, and that there was no risk of him fleeing. Meanwhile, on Sunday, supporters of the former president waved banners and flags outside the police station where he is being held. He's a person who hasn't committed any crime, but it's simply a political persecution. Including on November 22, they left it to arrest on the 22nd to show the world it's exactly nothing more than a 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. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Bolsonaro's leftist successor, defended the Supreme Court on Sunday in response to reporters' questions at the G20 summit in Johannesburg.

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