Jair Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities determined he posed a definite escape threat while under home confinement.
The former head of state was sentenced of orchestrating a armed takeover in September and sentenced more than over two decades in prison, but he was staying under confinement pending legal challenges.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the decision to arrest the septuagenarian politician was a precautionary step after fresh information were revealed.
This encompassed attempting to break his electronic bracelet and a summons to a public vigil that could "allow for a possible escape.
Legal Document Reveals Escape Risks
In a document approving the detention, the magistrate said data from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's aim to disable the tracking monitor to secure accomplishment in his flight.
This, it said, would be made easier by the chaos caused by the demonstration called by his son.
His son, Flávio, who works as a senator, called for a gathering of his backers near his father's house to take place on Saturday night.
His son wrote on social media on the previous day: Will you battle for your country, or watch it all from your phone there on your settee? I call on you to struggle with us."
He said the gathering would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his well-being and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the judge's decision was the possibility of the former president's move to foreign missions near the home, considering that the investigations revealed a record of organizing to ask for protection through a embassy office", a announcement said.
The court filing emphasizes that the United States embassy in the federal district, Brasilia, is positioned around approximately 13 kilometers from the former president's residence.
International Reactions
Bolsonaro's legal woes have generated frustration from fellow right-wing populist United States President Donald Trump, leading him to implement a 50% tariff on goods coming from Brazil.
Bolsonaro is being held in a national police facility in the capital and will have a detention review on the following day.
Recent Judicial Appeals
It was only on the previous day that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Supreme Court to allow him to complete his entire prison term under domestic detention, with tracking devices.
They also requested that he be allowed to leave his home for healthcare, saying he needed regular treatment for lung conditions and other illnesses.
Details of Guilty Verdict
The former president was determined responsible of leading a conspiracy aimed at retaining his authority after he was defeated in the presidential race to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Top judicial officials said that he had knowledge of a plan which included plans to kill his opponent and his vice-presidential running mate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to detain and kill Alexandre de Moraes - the High Court judge who has been managing the former president's case.
The plot was stopped because it didn't receive the backing of the army and air force commanders. Lula was inaugurated without incident on 1 January 2023.
But a seven days after, on the eighth of January, many his followers invaded and destroyed official structures in the federal district, Brasília.
The security forces stepped in and around 1,500 people were detained.
The magistrates found that the demonstrators had been provoked by him whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to step in, reestablish control and return him to office.
At the time, the legal team called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also prohibited from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.
The former president called the trial a "witch hunt and said it was designed to prevent him participating in the 2026 national vote.
