The Brazilian judiciary wants to use Interpol to search for a German diplomat accused of murdering his husband.
On Monday, a judge in Rio de Janeiro ordered the diplomat, who had left for Germany the day before, to be held in custody.
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 the diplomat's release last week.
She ruled that the prosecutor's office had missed a deadline for submitting indictment documents.
The diplomat did not 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 prosecutor in Rio de Janeiro, the diplomat was 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.
The German diplomat and his Belgian partner had reportedly been married for 20 years.
The police were now shocked that the diplomat was able to leave the country.
The investigators were "perplexed," Commissioner Camila Lourenço 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."