The former Brazilian president arrested after being declared a escape threat
Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under domestic detention.
The ex-president was found guilty of plotting a armed takeover in the ninth month and given more than 27 years in jail, but he was staying under home detention pending legal challenges.
Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" came to light.
This encompassed attempting to break his tracking device and a call for a supporters' gathering that could facilitate a potential flight.
Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns
In a paperwork permitting the detention, Justice Moraes said information from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's aim to disable the tracking monitor to ensure success in his escape.
This, it said, would be made easier by the chaos caused by the protest called by his child.
His offspring, Flávio Bolsonaro, who serves as a congressional representative, called for a gathering of his supporters near his father's house to take place on Saturday night.
His son wrote on digital networks on Friday: "Are you going to fight for your nation, or observe everything from your phone there on your settee? I call on you to fight with us."
He said the gathering would be so backers could seek divine intervention for his health and for the restoration of democratic rule in our country."
Foreign Shelter Risks
Part of the magistrate's ruling was the possibility of Bolsonaro's move to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the investigations revealed a background of planning to ask for protection through a diplomatic representation", a declaration said.
The judicial paperwork underscores that the American diplomatic mission in the national capital, the capital city, is positioned around approximately 13 kilometers from Bolsonaro's home.
Global Responses
His judicial problems have drawn the ire of fellow conservative nationalist US President Donald Trump, causing him to impose a fifty percent tax on imports of Brazilian goods.
Bolsonaro is being detained in a national police facility in Brasilia and will have a custody hearing on the next day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on Friday that the his legal team asked the Supreme Court to permit him to complete his entire prison term under house arrest, with electronic monitoring.
They also requested that he be permitted to exit his dwelling for medical care, saying he needed regular treatment for respiratory ailments and other illnesses.
Context of Sentencing
Bolsonaro was found guilty of heading a conspiracy aimed at maintaining his control after he lost the national vote to his left-wing rival, Lula.
Top judicial officials said that he had knowledge of a plan which encompassed plans to assassinate his opponent and his vice-presidential running mate, Alckmin, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the High Court judge who has been presiding over Bolsonaro's trial.
The scheme was thwarted because it failed to get the backing of the armed forces officials. Lula was took office without issue on January 1st, 2023.
But a week later, on 8 January, thousands of his backers invaded and destroyed public facilities in the federal district, Brazil's capital.
The security forces took action and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.
The judges found that the rioters had been incited by the former president whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to step in, reestablish control and return him to office.
At the period, the legal team called the decades-long sentence "absurdly excessive.
He was also banned from running for public office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the completion of his term.
The former president called the trial a targeted investigation" and said it was aimed at blocking him competing in the 2026 presidential election.