RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Rio de Janeiro state former governor Anthony Garotinho was transferred on Friday to a maximum security prison after allegedly faking an attack to himself.
Garotinho, who was arrested earlier this week for corruption and electoral related crimes, said someone invaded his cell during the night, hit him with a baseball bat and pointed a gun at him.
However, Garotinho was alone in the cell, and there are no other inmates in the same ward. According to police, the motion-activated cameras did not record any other people coming or going from his cell during the night. The prison wardens said Garotinho's wounds were self-inflicted.
The former governor was taken to a police precinct and testified for over three hours. His defense attorneys requested his transfer to a different jail, alleging that he was under risk due to the presence of his political rivals in the same prison.
Garotinho is not the only former Rio governor currently in prison. His wife, Rosinha Garotinho, who succeeded him in the position, was also arrested this week. Rosinha's successor, Sergio Cabral, is currently serving a 45-year sentence for corruption.
In fact, all the governors who ruled Rio state in this century are currently in prison, except Benedita da Silva, who was Garotinho's vice-governor and occupied the office for only a few months, and current governor Luiz Fernando Pezao. All the heads of the state assembly of this century are also in prison.
