The former Brazilian president detained after being deemed a risk of fleeing
Jair Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities found he posed a definite escape threat while under house arrest.
The one-time leader was found guilty of plotting a armed takeover in the ninth month and given more than over two decades in prison, but he continued under home detention pending legal challenges.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Justice Moraes said the action to imprison the elderly politician was a safety action after recent developments were revealed.
This included trying to remove his tracking device and a call for a demonstration that could facilitate a possible escape.
Court Filing Details Escape Risks
In a document approving the arrest, the magistrate said intelligence from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's plan to remove the surveillance device to secure accomplishment in his flight.
This, it said, would be assisted by the chaos caused by the demonstration called by his offspring.
His child, his son Flávio, who serves as a senator, called for a gathering of his supporters near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday night.
His son wrote on digital networks on last Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your homeland, or see it all from your mobile device there on your sofa? I urge you to fight with us."
He said the demonstration would be so followers could seek divine intervention for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our country."
Diplomatic Refuge Fears
Part of Justice Moraes's determination was the possibility of the former president's "relocation to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the investigations revealed a history of organizing to ask for protection through a diplomatic representation", a declaration said.
The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the United States embassy in the federal district, the capital city, is situated around approximately 13 kilometers from Bolsonaro's home.
Worldwide Consequences
The former president's legal troubles have generated frustration from fellow conservative nationalist US President Trump, leading him to enact a half-rate duty on goods coming from Brazil.
The former president is being kept in a Federal Police station in Brasilia and will undergo a detention review on the next day.
Recent Legal Requests
It was only on Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to allow him to complete his entire prison term under home confinement, with tracking devices.
They also petitioned that the former president be allowed to leave his home for medical treatment, saying he demanded regular treatment for lung conditions and other illnesses.
Background on Conviction
Bolsonaro was found guilty of leading a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he was defeated in the 2022 election to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a scheme which involved plans to assassinate Lula and his VP candidate, Alckmin, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the High Court judge who has been managing his judicial proceedings.
The plot was thwarted because it didn't receive the support of the army and air force commanders. Lula was inaugurated without incident on the first day of 2023.
But a following week, on 8 January, numerous his followers stormed and vandalised public facilities in the federal district, Brazil's capital.
The security forces intervened and around 1,500 people were taken into custody.
The judges found that the demonstrators had been encouraged by the former president whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, reestablish control and return him to office.
At the time, his attorneys called the 27 years and three months sentence "absurdly excessive.
He was also banned from seeking elected position until twenty-sixty - eight years after the end of his sentence.
The former president called the trial a targeted investigation" and said it was designed to prevent him participating in the 2026 presidential election.
