German Consul Arrested In Brazil After Her Husband Died, Police Find Scars On Various Parts Of The Body

Illustration of an arrest. (Pixabay/4711018)

JAKARTA - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil police arrested a German diplomat on Saturday night after the death of her Belgian husband, police said.

Hahn said her husband, Walter Biot, had died on Friday when he fell from their apartment in the Ipanema neighborhood after suffering a sudden illness.

However, the police arrested her on suspicion of murder after their forensics found bloodstains in the apartment and an autopsy on Biot's body revealed multiple injuries. Television images showed police taking Hahn away in a police car.

"The circumstances of the death are clear. We are aware of a violent death from the scars on various parts of the body," police investigator Camila Lourenco told reporters.

While citing the New York Post of the Straits Times, Hahn allegedly beat her husband for 20 years and then tried to cover up the crime, according to a report. Hahn allegedly told officials that Biot died after a combination of drinking and sleeping pills caused him to fall ill, faint, and hit his head", said the police.

But forensic reports revealed Biot, found in the couple's Ipanema beach apartment, had been brutally beaten, officials said.

"The version of the incident given by the consul, that the victim fell, does not match the conclusion of the forensic report," said Lourenco, of Rio de Janeiro's 14th Police Station.

"The corpse screamed the circumstances of its death," he said.

Separately, Germany's Foreign Ministry in Berlin said its embassy in Brazil and consulate in Rio de Janeiro were in close contact with Brazilian authorities investigating the case.

However, the ministry declined to provide further details due to ongoing investigations, as well as to protect individual privacy.

According to Brazilian news portal G1, the couple has been together for 23 years. Biot is said to be 52.

Hahn is accused of not only lying about how her husband died, but also of trying to cover up the scene before the police arrived. She said she would not receive diplomatic immunity because of the gravity of the charges against her, as reported by local media.