Bolsonaro taken into custody after being deemed a escape threat
Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under house arrest.
The ex-president was found guilty of planning a government overthrow in September and sentenced more than a 27-year term in prison, but he was staying under house arrest pending court reviews.
High Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes said the move to detain the elderly politician was a preventative measure after recent developments emerged.
This involved seeking to disable his ankle monitor and a call for a demonstration that could "allow for a chance to flee".
Legal Document Reveals Escape Risks
In a paperwork permitting the arrest, the judge said information from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's "intention to break the tracking monitor to secure accomplishment in his flight.
This, it said, would be assisted by the disorder caused by the protest called by his offspring.
His son, his son Flávio, who serves as a legislator, called for a meeting of his followers near the former president's residence to take place on the weekend.
His son wrote on online platforms on Friday: Will you battle for your homeland, or watch it all from your phone there on your sofa? I invite you to fight with us."
He said the gathering would be so supporters could "pray for his well-being and for the return of democracy in our land."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the judge's decision was the chance of his transfer to foreign missions near the home, considering that the inquiries revealed a record of arranging to ask for protection through a embassy office", a announcement said.
The judicial paperwork highlights that the United States embassy in the capital, Brasilia, is positioned around 13km from Bolsonaro's home.
Global Responses
His judicial problems have provoked anger from fellow conservative nationalist United States President Donald Trump, causing him to enact a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports.
The former president is being detained in a national police facility in the capital and will have a custody hearing on the following day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to authorize him to fulfill his full incarceration period under house arrest, with electronic monitoring.
They also requested that the former president be authorized to leave his home for medical treatment, saying he required frequent medical attention for respiratory ailments and other ailments.
Background on Conviction
Bolsonaro was convicted of leading a plot aimed at retaining his authority after he was defeated in the presidential race to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a plot which encompassed plans to kill Lula and his running partner, Alckmin, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the High Court judge who has been overseeing his judicial proceedings.
The plot was prevented because it failed to get the endorsement of the armed forces officials. His successor was sworn in without incident on the first day of 2023.
But a week later, on 8 January, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters attacked and damaged government buildings in the capital, the capital city.
The security forces took action and around 1,500 people were arrested.
The justices found that the demonstrators had been encouraged by Bolsonaro whose strategy, they said, was for the Brazilian military to take action, restore order and bring him back to power.
At the time, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also barred from seeking elected position until 2060 - eight years after the end of his sentence.
The former president called the court case a targeted investigation" and said it was intended to stop him running in the 2026 presidential election.