Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro stayed in the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia for two days fearing arrests. This came days after police confiscated his passport and arrested two former aides on suspicion of plotting a coup.
According to the embassy’s security-camera footage, which was obtained by The New York Times, Bolsonaro was seen at the entrance to the Hungarian Embassy, waiting to be let in.
The footage showed that the former president, accompanied by two security guards, stayed at the embassy. Bolsonaro, a target of various criminal investigations, cannot be arrested at a foreign embassy that welcomes him, because they are legally off-limits to domestic authorities.
The stay according to reports says that the former president was seeking to use his good books with Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary to evade the judicial investigation.
The episode raises questions about the former president’s plans as he faces multiple criminal investigations in Brazil, with several members of his inner circle already in prison.
After the story was published, Bolsonaro confirmed his stay and told Metrópoles, a Brazilian news, that he won’t deny he was at the embassy and added, “I have a circle of friends with some world leaders. They’re worried.”
Bolsonaro’s lawyer Fabio Wajngarten said on social media that the reason for the ex-president to spend two days at the Hungarian embassy was to “maintain contact with officials of the friendly country” and “get updates on the political landscape of both nations”.
“Any other interpretations that go beyond the information provided here are clearly fictional, unrelated to the reality of the facts and are, in practice, just another piece of fake news,” he added.
The visit came days after the Brazilian police seized Bolsonaro’s Brazilian and Italian passports and raided the homes of his top aides as part of an investigation into whether they were trying to stage a coup.
