The former Brazilian president taken into custody after being deemed a flight risk
Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities found he posed a concrete flight risk while under house arrest.
The one-time leader was found guilty of planning a armed takeover in the ninth month and sentenced more than a 27-year term in incarceration, but he was staying under house arrest pending appeals.
Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the action to imprison the elderly politician was a preventative measure after "new facts" emerged.
This included attempting to break his tracking device and a call for a demonstration that could facilitate a potential flight.
Court Filing Details Flight Fears
In a document approving the custody, the magistrate said information from the unit overseeing the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's plan to remove the tracking monitor to guarantee victory in his escape.
This, it said, would be made easier by the confusion caused by the demonstration called by his child.
His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a congressional representative, called for a assembly of his backers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday evening.
Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on digital networks on last Friday: Will you battle for your homeland, or see it all from your phone there on your sofa? I urge you to fight with us."
He said the gathering would be so backers could "pray for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of Justice Moraes's ruling was the possibility of Bolsonaro's move to embassies near the residence, considering that the inquiries revealed a record of planning to ask for protection through a diplomatic representation", a announcement said.
The legal document highlights that the US embassy in the federal district, Brasilia, is located around approximately 13 kilometers from the former president's residence.
International Reactions
His judicial problems have drawn the ire of fellow populist conservative US President President Trump, prompting him to implement a fifty percent tax on goods coming from Brazil.
Bolsonaro is being kept in a federal law enforcement building in the capital and will undergo a detention review on the following day.
Recent Legal Requests
It was only on Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the High Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest, with tracking devices.
They also requested that Bolsonaro be authorized to depart his residence for medical treatment, saying he demanded ongoing care for respiratory ailments and other illnesses.
Details of Guilty Verdict
Bolsonaro was found guilty of leading a scheme aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the national vote to his left-wing rival, President Lula.
Supreme Court justices said that he was aware of a plot which encompassed plans to kill the current president and his VP candidate, Alckmin, and to imprison and murder Alexandre de Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been overseeing Bolsonaro's trial.
The conspiracy was thwarted because it didn't receive the backing of the military leaders. His successor was sworn in without problem on January 1st, 2023.
But a following week, on 8 January, thousands of his backers stormed and vandalised official structures in the national capital, the capital city.
The security forces stepped in and around approximately 1,500 persons were taken into custody.
The magistrates found that the demonstrators had been encouraged by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the country's army to step in, bring back stability and reinstate his authority.
At the period, the legal team called the over 27-year sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also barred from running for public office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the completion of his term.
The former president called the court case a targeted investigation" and said it was aimed at blocking him competing in the 2026 national vote.