Bolsonaro arrested after being deemed a risk of fleeing
The former Brazilian leader has been arrested after authorities found he posed a definite escape threat while under domestic detention.
The ex-president was sentenced of plotting a armed takeover in last fall and handed more than a 27-year term in jail, but he remained under house arrest pending appeals.
Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the action to imprison the septuagenarian politician was a precautionary step after recent developments emerged.
This included trying to remove his tracking device and a summons to a demonstration that could "allow for a chance to flee".
Court Filing Details Flight Fears
In a filing authorising the detention, the judge said intelligence from the centre monitoring Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the former leader's aim to disable the electronic ankle bracelet to ensure success in his escape.
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the chaos caused by the protest called by his son.
His offspring, his son Flávio, who serves as a senator, called for a gathering of his backers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.
The senator wrote on digital networks on last Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your country, or observe everything from your mobile device there on your settee? I invite you to struggle with us."
He said the gathering would be so supporters could offer prayers for his health and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our country."
Foreign Shelter Risks
Part of the magistrate's ruling was the possibility of Bolsonaro's "relocation to diplomatic missions near the dwelling, considering that the probes revealed a history of arranging to request asylum through a consular facility", a declaration said.
The legal document highlights that the US embassy in the capital, Brazil's capital, is situated around 8 miles from the former president's residence.
Global Responses
The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow right-wing populist United States President Donald Trump, causing him to implement a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports.
He is being detained in a national police facility in Brasilia and will experience a custody hearing on the following day.
Recent Legal Requests
It was only on Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to permit him to fulfill his full incarceration period under house arrest, with electronic monitoring.
They also requested that he be permitted to exit his dwelling for medical treatment, saying he demanded ongoing care for pulmonary infections and other ailments.
Background on Conviction
He was convicted of leading a plot aimed at maintaining his control after he was defeated in the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, President Lula.
High Court judges said that he had knowledge of a scheme which encompassed plans to assassinate the current president and his VP candidate, Alckmin, and to detain and kill Justice Moraes - the top judicial official who has been presiding over Bolsonaro's trial.
The scheme was stopped because it didn't receive the backing of the armed forces officials. His successor was inaugurated without problem on January 1st, 2023.
But a week later, on the eighth of January, many Bolsonaro supporters invaded and destroyed official structures in the federal district, BrasĂlia.
The security forces intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.
The justices found that the rioters had been encouraged by the former president whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, bring back stability and reinstate his authority.
At the moment, his attorneys called the over 27-year sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also prohibited from seeking elected position until the year 2060 - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.
The ex-leader called the court case a "witch hunt and said it was intended to stop him participating in the 2026 national vote.
