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, court records showed, a day after police took him into custody out of fear he might flee.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro told a judge on Sunday that his ankle monitor violation early Saturday morning, which led to his arrest, was due to “hallucinations.” The former leader told assistant judge Luciana Sorrentino that he was not attempting to flee his prison sentence but that he had some “paranoia” from medication leading him to investigate his ankle monitor.

In September, Bolsonaro was diagnosed with skin cancer. The announcement came as the beleaguered far-right leader was discharged from a hospital in the capital Brasilia, where he was rushed under prison guard after suffering violent bouts of hiccups,

Shortly before he was expected to start serving a 27-year sentence, Brazil’s former president took a soldering iron to his tracking device.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Simone Guimarães, a retired 52-year-old teacher in Rio de Janeiro, lost at least five relatives to COVID-19: her husband, sister, two brothers-in-law and the godfather of her grandchild. She also lost friends and neighbors.

Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro was taken from house arrest into police custody on Saturday to prevent him from escaping as he appeals a conviction for a failed coup attempt, the Supreme Court said.

Brazilian democracy has spent the past three years in a near-permanent state of tension – a full-body clench against an ex-president who refused to accept defeat. On Saturday morning, those muscles tightened again.