German consul Uwe Herbert Hahn was arrested in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday and charged with the murder of his husband.
Hahn’s husband of 20 years, 52-year-old Walter Henri Maximilien Biot, was found dead in the couple’s Ipanema apartment over the weekend. Hahn claimed that Biot had been acting strangely in the days leading up to his death. He told Brazilian police that Biot had been drinking and taking sleeping pills.
In video obtained by CNN, Hahn described to police how the couple had been sitting on their sofa when Biot stood up, ran toward the apartment’s balcony, and fell face down onto the floor.
But police say that forensic evidence contradicts Hahn’s story. “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 a statement posted on social media by authorities. “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.”
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“The cadaver is screaming out the circumstances of its death.”
Hahn has been denied diplomatic immunity. In his decision, Brazilian judge Rafael de Almeida Rezende said that there was evidence that Hahn had attempted to cover up the alleged crime.
“The apartment was cleaned before the forensics team carried out its examination, a fact that by itself demonstrates that the release of the suspect in custody could lead to serious encumbrances to the collection of evidence.”
According to the judge’s decision, blood splatter was detected in the couple’s bedroom and bathroom “compatible with the dynamics of a violent death.”
A German Foreign Office source told CNN that “Our Embassy in Brasilia and the Consulate General in Rio de Janeiro are in close contact with the Brazilian authorities investigating this case,” but declined to comment on the investigation further.
