Brazilian Police Detain German Ambassador

The Brazilian police have said it detained a German ambassador on Saturday for allegedly killing his Belgian husband at their Rio de Janeiro residence and then attempted to cover it up.

Uwe Herbert Hahn, a consul at Germany’s consulate in Rio de Janeiro, told authorities his husband, Belgian national Walter Henri Maximilien Biot, had taken ill Friday night, collapsing and fatally hitting his head, police said.

However, an examination of the body and the couple’s posh Ipanema residence revealed that Biot had been brutally assaulted, the authorities claimed.

“The version of events given by the consul, that the victim suffered a fall, is incompatible with the conclusions of the forensics report,” officer Camila Lourenco said in comments posted on social media by Rio de Janeiro’s 14th police precinct.

“It found various bruises, including on the torso, compatible with injuries inflicted by stomping, as well as lesions compatible with an attack with a cylindrical instrument,” she added.

“The cadaver is screaming out the circumstances of its death.”

Pictures of what seemed to be blood stains on the couple’s apartment’s floor and furniture were shared on the precinct’s Instagram account.

According to Brazilian media sources, considering the nature of the offence, Hahn would not be granted diplomatic immunity. A request for comment from the police did not immediately receive one.

According to local media sources, Hahn, who had been married to Biot for 20 years, attempted to tidy up the scene of the death before the police arrived, and after they arrived, she informed them that Biot had been drinking heavily and using sleeping pills.

According to a photo of his ID card leaked in the Brazilian news, Biot was one week away from becoming 53 years old.

The German embassy in Brasilia did not immediately answer a request for information.