Brazil's former spy chief released from ICE detention

Brazil's fugitive former spy chief Alexandre Ramagem has been released from custody by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE).

ICE confirmed it had detained Ramagem on Monday, but has not said why. The 53-year-old's name no longer appears on the agency's list of those in its custody, BBC News Brasil has confirmed.

He is wanted in Brazil, where he was sentenced to 16 years in prison for his role in an attempted military coup aimed at keeping former President Jair Bolsonaro in power after he lost the 2022 election.

Ramagem, who led Brazil's intelligence agency (Abin), fled to the US in September 2025 before he could be jailed by Brazilian authorities.

Bolsonaro's son Eduardo, who lives in the US, said on Thursday that the former intelligence chief was "out and home".

In a post on social media, he thanked US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for "the sensitivity with which they dealt with this true national hero, who does not give up even when he is being persecuted".

Referencing Ramagem's reported request for sanctuary in the US, Bolsonaro added that the ex-spy chief deserved being granted "asylum in the land of liberty".

Brazilian media reported he had been let go on Wednesday.

ICE has not commented on his release following his detention in Orlando, Florida.

A close ally of former President Bolsonaro, the 53-year-old was one of seven co-conspirators convicted alongside him over the military coup.

He is also under investigation for allegedly using his position at Abin to illegally spy on Bolsonaro's critics, which he has denied.

Brazilian judicial authorities have declared him a fugitive, and in December the country's Supreme Court asked the US to extradite him.

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said before Ramagem's release that he must "return to Brazil to serve his sentence".

Trump has in the past said Bolsonaro had been "a good president of Brazil" and called the trial over the coup a "witch hunt". He also described Bolsonaro's 27-year jail sentence as "very surprising" at the time.