Bolsonaro detained after being declared a flight risk
The former Brazilian leader has been taken into custody after authorities determined he posed a concrete flight risk while under home confinement.
The former head of state was found guilty of planning a armed takeover in last fall and handed more than a 27-year term in incarceration, but he remained under home detention pending appeals.
Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the decision to arrest the 70-year-old politician was a safety action after recent developments were revealed.
This encompassed trying to remove his electronic bracelet and a summons to a public vigil that could facilitate a chance to flee".
Legal Document Reveals Flight Fears
In a filing authorising the arrest, Justice Moraes said data from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's aim to disable the tracking monitor to ensure success in his escape.
This, it said, would be made easier by the confusion caused by the gathering called by his child.
His offspring, his son Flávio, who serves as a legislator, called for a meeting of his followers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday night.
His son wrote on social media on last Friday: "Are you going to fight for your homeland, or observe everything from your phone there on your settee? I invite you to fight with us."
He said the gathering would be so backers could seek divine intervention for his physical condition and for the return of democracy in our country."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the magistrate's determination was the chance of the former president's "relocation to embassies near the dwelling, considering that the investigations revealed a background of organizing to ask for protection through a consular facility", a statement said.
The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the United States embassy in the capital, the capital city, is located around 8 miles from Bolsonaro's home.
Global Responses
His judicial problems have generated frustration from fellow conservative nationalist American leader President Trump, causing him to implement a fifty percent tax on imports of Brazilian goods.
Bolsonaro is being held in a Federal Police station in Brasilia and will have a custody hearing on the next day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on last Friday that the his legal team asked the High Court to permit him to fulfill his full incarceration period under house arrest, with tracking devices.
They also requested that the former president be allowed to depart his residence for medical care, saying he required regular treatment for respiratory ailments and other health problems.
Details of Guilty Verdict
He was found guilty of leading a scheme aimed at retaining his authority after he failed to win the presidential race to his left-wing rival, President Lula.
Top judicial officials said that he had knowledge of a scheme which involved plans to assassinate his opponent and his VP candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the top judicial official who has been managing the former president's case.
The conspiracy was stopped because it failed to get the endorsement of the army and air force commanders. The current president was sworn in without problem on the first day of 2023.
But a following week, on 8 January, numerous Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised official structures in the national capital, Brazil's capital.
The security forces took action and around 1,500 people were detained.
The justices found that the demonstrators had been incited by Bolsonaro whose plan, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, bring back stability and bring him back to power.
At the moment, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the 27 years and three months sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also banned from seeking elected position until twenty-sixty - eight years after the completion of his term.
The ex-leader called the court case a political persecution and said it was intended to stop him running in the 2026 national vote.