Bolsonaro detained after being declared a risk of fleeing
The former Brazilian leader has been taken into custody after authorities found he posed a concrete flight risk while under house arrest.
The one-time leader was found guilty of plotting a armed takeover in the ninth month and handed more than a 27-year term in prison, but he remained under confinement pending court reviews.
High Court Judge the presiding justice said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a precautionary step after fresh information came to light.
This involved attempting to break his ankle monitor and a summons to a demonstration that could "allow for a potential flight.
Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns
In a paperwork permitting the detention, Justice Moraes said data from the unit overseeing Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the former leader's plan to remove the tracking monitor to secure accomplishment in his getaway".
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the chaos caused by the protest called by his offspring.
His son, his son Flávio, who works as a senator, called for a gathering of his followers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday evening.
His son wrote on online platforms on last Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your nation, or see it all from your mobile device there on your couch? I call on you to battle with us."
He said the demonstration would be so supporters could "pray for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our country."
Diplomatic Refuge Fears
Part of the magistrate's determination was the possibility of Bolsonaro's move to foreign missions near the residence, considering that the investigations revealed a record of arranging to seek refuge through a consular facility", a declaration said.
The legal document emphasizes that the US embassy in the capital, Brazil's capital, is positioned around 8 miles from Bolsonaro's home.
Global Responses
Bolsonaro's legal woes have provoked anger from fellow populist conservative US President Donald Trump, prompting him to implement a 50% tariff on goods coming from Brazil.
He is being held in a federal law enforcement building in Brazil's capital city and will experience a custody hearing on the next day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Supreme Court to authorize him to fulfill his full incarceration period under house arrest, with tracking devices.
They also requested that Bolsonaro be authorized to depart his residence for healthcare, saying he needed frequent medical attention for respiratory ailments and other ailments.
Details of Guilty Verdict
Bolsonaro was convicted of orchestrating a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he failed to win the presidential race to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a scheme which involved plans to murder his opponent and his running partner, Geraldo Alckmin, and to arrest and execute Justice Moraes - the top judicial official who has been managing his judicial proceedings.
The scheme was prevented because it didn't receive the backing of the armed forces officials. His successor was sworn in without issue on January 1st, 2023.
But a following week, on the eighth of January, thousands of his backers invaded and destroyed public facilities in the capital, the capital city.
The law enforcement took action and around 1,500 people were taken into custody.
The justices found that the protesters had been provoked by Bolsonaro whose plan, they said, was for the national armed forces to step in, reestablish control and bring him back to power.
At the moment, the legal team called the 27 years and three months sentence "absurdly excessive.
He was also barred from running for public office until the year 2060 - eight years after the end of his sentence.
The former president called the court case a "witch hunt and said it was intended to stop him running in the 2026 presidential election.