Bolsonaro arrested after being declared a flight risk
Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under home confinement.
The one-time leader was found guilty of plotting a government overthrow in last fall and sentenced more than over two decades in jail, but he remained under home detention pending appeals.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Justice Moraes said the action to imprison the 70-year-old politician was a safety action after "new facts" came to light.
This included seeking to disable his electronic bracelet and a call for a supporters' gathering that could "allow for a chance to flee".
Judicial Records Show Escape Risks
In a document approving the custody, the judge said information from the centre monitoring his home detention suggested the former leader's plan to remove the tracking monitor to ensure success in his escape.
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the disorder caused by the gathering called by his child.
His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who serves as a legislator, called for a meeting of his followers near his father's house to take place on Saturday night.
His son wrote on social media on Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your country, or observe everything from your mobile device there on your sofa? I call on you to fight with us."
He said the demonstration would be so followers could offer prayers for his health and for the return of democracy in our country."
Diplomatic Refuge Fears
Part of the judge's determination was the potential of his move to foreign missions near the residence, considering that the probes revealed a background of planning to request asylum through a consular facility", a announcement said.
The court filing underscores that the American diplomatic mission in the capital, Brazil's capital, is located around 13km from his dwelling.
Global Responses
Bolsonaro's legal woes have generated frustration from fellow right-wing populist US President Trump, causing him to enact a half-rate duty on goods coming from Brazil.
He is being held in a Federal Police station in Brazil's capital city and will have a detention review on Sunday.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on the previous day that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the High Court to allow him to fulfill his full incarceration period under house arrest, with tracking devices.
They also requested that the former president be allowed to leave his home for medical care, saying he demanded regular treatment for respiratory ailments and other illnesses.
Details of Guilty Verdict
The former president was found guilty of heading a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he was defeated in the national vote to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Supreme Court justices said that he was aware of a plan which involved plans to murder his opponent and his VP candidate, Alckmin, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the High Court judge who has been managing his judicial proceedings.
The scheme was prevented because it failed to get the backing of the military leaders. His successor was took office without problem on the first day of 2023.
But a following week, on 8 January, many his followers stormed and vandalised official structures in the federal district, Brazil's capital.
The law enforcement intervened and around 1,500 people were detained.
The magistrates found that the demonstrators had been encouraged by Bolsonaro whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, bring back stability and return him to office.
At the time, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the decades-long sentence extremely harsh.
He was also banned from running for public office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the completion of his term.
The former president called the legal proceedings a targeted investigation" and said it was aimed at blocking him running in the next presidential race.