Jair Bolsonaro attributed this Sunday, November 23, the attempt to melt the electronic bracelet with a soldering iron to “a hallucination” that the electronic device had a bug, according to the report of the custody hearing for the former president who decided to maintain preventive detention. According to Bolsonaro, the new medications he has been taking have caused him a paranoid episode.
Here is an excerpt from the minutes of the hearing: “When asked about the attempt to violate the bracelet, Bolsonaro replied that he had a ‘certain paranoia’ due to the medications he had been taking, prescribed by different doctors and which, according to him, reacted inappropriately (…) He also said that his sleep is ‘choppy’ and that he doesn’t sleep well. Therefore, he decided to use a soldering iron to tinker with the bracelet, because there is an operating course for this type of equipment.”
Also according to the text, “Bolsonaro reported that he touched the bracelet around midnight but then ‘came to his senses’ and stopped using the solder, at which point he allegedly communicated with the custody agents.” He also said that he does not remember “having an outbreak of this nature on any other occasion” and that he started “taking one of the medicines around four days before the events that led to his arrest”.
“He justified that the entire act was caused by a ‘hallucination’ that there was a bug in the bracelet, then trying to open the cover of the device with the iron”, the hearing report continues.
Bolsonaro also denied before the judge that he planned to escape taking advantage of a vigil scheduled by his son, the minutes say: “When he was asked specifically about a possibility of escape caused by the vigil called by his son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, in the region of his house, where he was preventively detained, Bolsonaro denied any attempt to escape”.
The day before, an excerpt from Bolsonaro’s interrogation was made public in which the politician admits to the authorities that he had used a soldering iron to try to burn the electronic bracelet. “I put the iron in there. Curiosity,” said the former Brazilian president, according to a video recorded by an agent and released by the Federal Supreme Court (STF). In the video in question, it is possible to see the damage to the electronic bracelet caused by Bolsonaro’s attempt.
Jair Bolsonaro, former president of Brazil, was detained by the Federal Police (PF) at the request of the STF on the morning of Saturday, November 22nd. The measure does not yet refer to serving a sentence, but rather to a precautionary measure.
Bolsonaro was taken to the PF Superintendency, without offering resistance, according to police sources cited by Globo News. The arrest was motivated by the need to guarantee public order, after, on Friday, Flávio Bolsonaro, called a vigil in support of the former president at the door of his condominium in a video in which he asked his father’s supporters if they will follow the situation from the comfort of home on their cell phone or if they will take action. The demonstration, says Flávio, aimed to “fight for the return of democracy to Brazil”.
But, according to the STF judge reporting the case, Alexandre de Moraes, the vigil aimed to disrupt public order and harm the police’s actions in the event of an action at the location, posing a “risk of flight”. Moraes also mentioned that “the Integrated Monitoring Integration Center of the Federal District” had reported the aforementioned “violation of the electronic monitoring equipment of the defendant Jair Messias Bolsonaro”.
“The information”, continues Moraes, “confirms the condemned man’s intention to break the electronic ankle bracelet to ensure a successful escape, facilitated by the confusion caused by the demonstration called by his son”.
The judge also cites the cases of Alexandre Ramagem, another of those already convicted of a coup d’état, recorded this week in Florida, in the USA, without informing the court, and that of Carla Zambelli, a Bolsonarist deputy convicted in another case, who escaped to Italy, also via Florida.
Furthermore, there is a record of an escape attempt by Bolsonaro himself, who slept for two nights in February 2024 at the Hungarian embassy, just 13 km away from the former president’s condominium, with the aim of asking for asylum from the government of ally Viktor Orban. Bolsonaro’s defense denied, at the time, any intention to escape.
Bolsonaro must be imprisoned in a room at the PF Superintendence in Brasília, with a bed, bathroom, desk and a small refrigerator. The former president, who has been experiencing health problems, will have the right to full-time medical care, Moraes also decided.
This preventive detention takes place on the eve of Jair Bolsonaro beginning to serve his sentence, as the resources presented by the defense have already been exhausted. The former president of Brazil was sentenced in September to 27 years and three months for the attempted coup d’état after his defeat in the 2022 elections. He has been under house arrest since August 4 and banned from making public statements and comments on social media.