Bolsonaro detained after being deemed a risk of fleeing
Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under home confinement.
The former head of state was sentenced of orchestrating a armed takeover in last fall and handed more than 27 years in jail, but he continued under home detention pending legal challenges.
Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the decision to arrest the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after fresh information came to light.
This involved trying to remove his tracking device and a invitation to a public vigil that could enable a possible escape.
Court Filing Details Escape Risks
In a document approving the detention, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the unit overseeing the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's plan to remove the tracking monitor to guarantee victory in his flight.
This, it said, would be assisted by the confusion caused by the demonstration called by his offspring.
His offspring, his son Flávio, who works as a congressional representative, called for a gathering of his supporters near the former president's residence to take place on the weekend.
The senator wrote on digital networks on last Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your homeland, or watch it all from your smartphone there on your settee? I invite you to battle with us."
He said the vigil would be so backers could seek divine intervention for his health and for the restoration of democratic rule in our land."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of Justice Moraes's determination was the chance of Bolsonaro's "relocation to foreign missions near the home, considering that the inquiries revealed a record of organizing to request asylum through a diplomatic representation", a announcement said.
The judicial paperwork underscores that the United States embassy in the federal district, the capital city, is positioned around approximately 13 kilometers from his dwelling.
Global Responses
Bolsonaro's legal woes have drawn the ire of fellow conservative nationalist US President Trump, causing him to impose a half-rate duty on goods coming from Brazil.
The former president is being kept in a national police facility in Brasilia and will experience a detention review on the next day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Top Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest, with tracking devices.
They also petitioned that he be permitted to leave his home for medical treatment, saying he demanded ongoing care for pulmonary infections and other ailments.
Background on Conviction
He was convicted of heading a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he failed to win the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, President Lula.
High Court judges said that he was aware of a plot which involved plans to assassinate his opponent and his running partner, Alckmin, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the top judicial official who has been overseeing Bolsonaro's trial.
The plot was thwarted because it didn't receive the support of the armed forces officials. The current president was inaugurated without problem on 1 January 2023.
But a following week, on the eighth of January, many his backers attacked and damaged public facilities in the capital, the capital city.
The police intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.
The judges found that the rioters had been encouraged by him whose scheme, they said, was for the national armed forces to intervene, reestablish control and return him to office.
At the period, the legal team called the over 27-year sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also barred from campaigning for office until the year 2060 - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.
The ex-leader called the trial a "witch hunt and said it was aimed at blocking him running in the next presidential race.