Brazil’s Bolsonaro says ‘hallucinations’ led him to violate ankle monitoring and cause his arrest

Flavio Bolsonaro, son of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, hugs a supporter during a vigil outside the former president's residence in Brasília, Brazil, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, after his father's arrest earlier in the day, carried out days before he was set to start serving his 27-year sentence for leading a coup attempt. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

BRASILIA, Brazil — On his first full day in jail, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro told a judge on Sunday he had violated his ankle monitoring the day before at his house arrest because of a nervous breakdown and hallucinations caused by a change in his medication.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the 70-year-old leader’s preemptive jailing Saturday for he is considered a flight risk. Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison in September for attempting a coup to remain in the presidency after his 2022 electoral defeat.

“(Bolsonaro) said he had `hallucinations’ that there was some wire tap in the ankle monitoring, so he tried to uncover it,” assistant judge Luciana Sorrentino said, as reported in a Supreme Court document published on Sunday shortly after her online meeting with the former president.

Sorrentino added that Bolsonaro told her he “did not remember having a breakdown of this magnitude in another occasion,” and speculated it might have been caused by a change in his medication last week. He once again denied that he intended to escape.

The document says Bolsonaro also told the judge he hadn’t been sleeping well and was feeling “a certain paranoia” that stimulated his curiosity into opening the ankle monitoring device.

“(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,” the document says. “He said he started to touch it late at night and stopped around midnight.”

De Moraes received information that the far-right leader’s ankle monitor was violated at 12:08 a.m. on Saturday. The arrest order came hours later.

Two of Bolsonaro’s doctors who came to his support Sunday morning said later in a statement they had suspended the use of a medication that allegedly troubled the former president. They also said he is physically well.

A panel of Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled in September that Bolsonaro tried to stage a coup and keep the presidency after his defeat by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2022.

On Monday, the same panel will vote on the preemptive arrest order.

Bolsonaro’s meeting with an assistant judge on Sunday was procedural to discuss the legality of his jailing, but also provided another opportunity for his lawyers to argue he should remain under house arrest due to poor health. De Moraes has previously rejected similar requests.

De Moraes authorized Bolsonaro to be visited by former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro, who was out of Brasilia when federal police agents took her husband into custody. She did not speak to journalists after her two-hour visit.

Lula made his first comments about his predecessor’s jailing at the G20 group of nations meeting in South Africa. “The court ruled, that’s decided. Everyone knows what he did,” Lula told journalists.

Outside the federal police headquarters, some pro-Bolsonaro protesters held banners calling for Lula and de Moraes to be removed from their posts, while detractors of the former president celebrated his jailing.

Other Brazilian cities registered anti-Bolsonaro demonstrations. Sao Paulo’s main artery had a giant plastic doll of the former president dressed as an inmate parading for several hours. Rio de Janeiro’s Pride parade also rejoiced with the far-right’s leader preemptive jailing.

Mauricio Savarese And Lucas Dumphreys, The Associated Press

Savarese reported from Sao Paulo, Brazil.