He is said to have beaten his husband to death. Nevertheless, a German diplomat in Brazil can board a plane heading home unhindered - and thus escape prosecution. The reason is a judicial order that caused the investigative authorities to be stunned.
The Brazilian judiciary wants the German diplomat Uwe H., who is accused of murdering his husband, to be searched via Interpol. A judge in Rio de Janeiro ordered pre-trial detention against H., who left for Germany the day before. Because of the consul's departure, Judge Gustavo Kalil said he should be put on the list of fugitives by the international police organization Interpol.
The diplomat was arrested in Rio de Janeiro in early August. He is accused of killing his Belgian husband in their apartment in the chic beach district of Ipanema. However, a judge ordered H.'s release last week. She ruled that the prosecutor's office had missed a deadline for submitting indictment documents. He didn't have to give up his passport.
The public prosecutor denies having missed a deadline. She formally accused the man of murder on Monday, the day after he left Brazil.
The diplomat's husband is said to have been beaten to death. According to the public prosecutor's office in Rio de Janeiro, H. is said to have been extremely possessive: he is said to have "financially and psychologically subjugated" his partner and denied him any independence and friendships with others. According to the police, the diplomat himself said that his husband suddenly collapsed on a Friday evening and sustained fatal head injuries.
Local media reported that the German diplomat, who works at the consulate general in Rio, tried to clear tracks before police arrived. He also testified that his husband drank a lot and took sleeping pills. H. and his partner had been married for 20 years.
The police were shocked that the diplomat was able to leave the country unmolested. The investigators were "perplexed," Commissioner Camila Lourenco told the newspaper "O Globo". After the diplomat's release, the judiciary could at least have withheld his passport. "That would have made his escape more difficult."
