Bolsonaro taken into custody after being declared a flight risk
Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities determined he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under home confinement.
The one-time leader was sentenced of plotting a military coup in the ninth month and handed more than over two decades in incarceration, but he remained under confinement pending legal challenges.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the action to imprison the elderly politician was a precautionary step after fresh information were revealed.
This included attempting to break his ankle monitor and a call for a demonstration that could "allow for a possible escape.
Judicial Records Show Escape Risks
In a paperwork permitting the detention, the judge said intelligence from the facility tracking his home detention suggested the ex-president's plan to remove the surveillance device to ensure success in his escape.
This, it said, would be made easier by the disorder caused by the demonstration called by his offspring.
His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a senator, called for a assembly of his supporters near his father's house to take place on the weekend.
The senator wrote on online platforms on Friday: "Are you going to fight for your nation, or see it all from your smartphone there on your couch? I invite you to battle with us."
He said the vigil would be so followers could "pray for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our land."
Diplomatic Refuge Fears
Part of the judge's determination was the potential of his "relocation to foreign missions near the dwelling, considering that the investigations revealed a history of arranging to request asylum through a consular facility", a statement said.
The judicial paperwork highlights that the United States embassy in the federal district, Brazil's capital, is positioned around approximately 13 kilometers from his dwelling.
Global Responses
His judicial problems have generated frustration from fellow right-wing populist US President President Trump, causing him to implement a fifty percent tax on imports of Brazilian goods.
Bolsonaro is being held in a federal law enforcement building in Brasilia and will undergo a imprisonment assessment on the next day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on the previous day that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to allow him to complete his entire prison term under home confinement, with tracking devices.
They also petitioned that the former president be authorized to depart his residence for healthcare, saying he demanded frequent medical attention for lung conditions and other health problems.
Context of Sentencing
He was determined responsible of leading a conspiracy aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the presidential race to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
High Court judges said that he was aware of a plan which included plans to assassinate his opponent and his running partner, his vice-presidential candidate, and to imprison and murder Justice Moraes - the top judicial official who has been overseeing Bolsonaro's trial.
The plot was thwarted because it didn't receive the support of the military leaders. Lula was sworn in without problem on the first day of 2023.
But a following week, on the eighth of January, thousands of his followers invaded and destroyed official structures in the federal district, Brazil's capital.
The security forces took action and around 1,500 people were taken into custody.
The magistrates found that the protesters had been encouraged by him whose plan, they said, was for the country's army to intervene, reestablish control and return him to office.
At the time, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the over 27-year sentence "absurdly excessive.
He was also banned from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - eight years after the end of his sentence.
The one-time head of state called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was designed to prevent him participating in the 2026 national vote.