Crime
Gay Diplomat Arrested for Allegedly Beating His Husband to Death
The German official was arrested in the Ipanema neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro.
August 09 2022 9:44 AM EST
August 09 2022 9:51 AM EST
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The German official was arrested in the Ipanema neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro.
A top German diplomat in Brazil has been arrested in connection with the killing of his husband.
Authorities accuse Uwe Herbert Hahn of killing Walter Biot and then trying to cover up his crime. Hahn had told police that Biot had become ill and had hit his head, according to CBS News.
The diplomat's tale of events differs from an analysis of Biot's body and the couple's apartment in Ipanema, police said. They said Biot had been beaten.
"The version of events given by the consul, that the victim suffered a fall, is incompatible with the conclusions of the forensics report," police officer Camila Lourenco said in a social media post 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."
Lourenco added, "The cadaver is screaming out the circumstances of its death."
The precinct posted images on social media that showed what appears to be blood stains on the couple's apartment floor and furniture.
A judge denied Hahn's defense claims of diplomatic immunity, according to CNN Brasil.
Judge Rafael de Almeida Rezende wrote in his decision that "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."
In response to the diplomatic immunity claims by Hahn's attorneys, Rezende said, "an arrest due to an intentional crime against life, committed inside the couple's apartment [so outside of the consular environment] has no relation whatsoever to consular duties."
The couple had been together for 23 years, local news site G1 reported, according to Reuters.
Sources from the German Foreign Office told CNN of an "arrest of an employee posted to the Consulate General in Rio de Janeiro."
"Our Embassy in Brasilia and the Consulate General in Rio de Janeiro are in close contact with the Brazilian authorities investigating this case," the sources said.
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