A Brazilian senator said on Monday that the country’s former intelligence agency chief Alexandre Ramagem was arrested by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and is pleading for him to get political asylum in the United States.
Ramagem, also a former lawmaker, was sentenced in September to 16 years in prison for his role in the coup attempt by supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in 2023. Brazil’s federal police said he fled the South American nation before he would have started serving his sentence.
Sen. Jorge Seif said in his social media channels that he had informed the U.S. embassy in Brasilia that Ramagem should not remain in custody for he was being persecuted at home. Seif did not give details as to why the former Brazilian intelligence agency chief had been put under custody.
On Monday, Ramagem appeared as in custody in ICE’s online detainee database, although where he is being held was not specified.
“The political persecution against President Bolsonaro, his sons and his allies is now hitting an elected lawmaker in foreign soil,” Seif said. “In our document (to the U.S. embassy) we showed all the reasons that justify and defend the concession of political asylum to Ramagem and his family.”
Ramagem was stripped of his seat in Brazil’s congress in December as a consequence of his conviction in the coup case one month earlier.
Earlier on Monday, Brazil’s federal police said in a statement that ICE had detained “a fugitive from Brazilian justice following his conviction for the crimes of armed criminal association, attempted coup d’etat, and the attempted violent abolition of the rule of law.” The statement did not mention Ramagem by name.
Brazil’s federal police also said the unnamed fugitive was recently sentenced by the country’s top court for the same three counts as Ramagem’s conviction.
ICE and Ramagem’s lawyer did not respond a request for comment from The Associated Press.
Ramagem, 53, is a former police officer who commanded Brazil’s main intelligence agency, ABIN, under Bolsonaro.
He was later elected a federal lawmaker, but lost his seat after his conviction.
Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year jail term over the conspiracy, which prosecutors said failed only because of a lack of support from military top brass.
Local media reported that Ramagem left Brazil via the border with Guyana, bypassing immigration controls, and entered the United States on a diplomatic passport.
Brazil formally requested the extradition of Ramagem in December.
The police statement said the arrest was the result of “international police cooperation between the Federal Police and U.S. law enforcement authorities.”
Bolsonaro ally and influencer Paulo Renato Figueiredo, who lives in the United States, wrote on X that Ramagem had been detained for a “minor traffic infraction.”
Figueiredo — grandson of the last general to preside over Brazil during the 1964-1985 dictatorship — said that Ramagem’s immigration status was legal, and that he has a pending asylum application.
“We expect him to be released as quickly as possible, at this time, we see no risk of deportation.”
In a separate case, Ramagem is under investigation for allegedly leading a criminal group which carried out illegal spying on behalf of the far-right leader and his inner circle using Israeli surveillance software.
Federal police have recommended that charges be brought against Ramagem and around 30 others, including the former president’s son Carlos Bolsonaro, in connection with this probe.
Ex-president Bolsonaro has been serving his sentence under house arrest for health reasons since last month, when he was rushed from prison to hospital with bronchopneumonia.
He has chosen his eldest son, the senator Flavio Bolsonaro, to face off against Lula in October elections.
The latest poll by the Datafolha Institute published Sunday showed Flavio Bolsonaro with 46 percent of voter intentions compared to 45 percent for Lula in a potential runoff.
contributed to this report.
