BRAZIL’S former intelligence agency chief Alexandre Ramagem has been arrested by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers in the United States, a Brazilian senator said on Monday, pleading for Washington to grant him to political asylum.

Mr Ramagem, also a former legislator, was sentenced last September to 16 years in prison for his role in the 2023 coup attempt by supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. 

Brazil’s federal police said he fled the South American nation before he would have started serving his sentence.

Senator Jorge Seif posted on social mediaon Monday that he had informed the US embassy in Brasilia that Mr Ramagem should not remain in custody, claiming that he was being persecuted at home. 

Mr Seif did not explain why the former Brazilian intelligence agency chief had been detained.

But the senator said: “The political persecution against President Bolsonaro, his sons and his allies is now hitting an elected lawmaker in foreign soil. 

“In our document [to the US embassy], we showed all the reasons that justify and defend the concession of political asylum to Ramagem and his family.”

Earlier on Monday, Brazil’s federal police said in a statement that a “fugitive of the country’s justice was arrested” in Orlando, but it did not mention Mr Ramagem by name.