Bolsonaro detained after being deemed a risk of fleeing
The former Brazilian leader has been detained after authorities found he posed a definite escape threat while under house arrest.
The former head of state was sentenced 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 legal challenges.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Justice Moraes said the move to detain the 70-year-old politician was a preventative measure after fresh information came to light.
This involved seeking to disable his tracking device and a call for a demonstration that could facilitate a possible escape.
Court Filing Details Escape Concerns
In a filing authorising the detention, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the unit overseeing the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's aim to disable the surveillance device to ensure success in his escape.
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the chaos caused by the protest called by his son.
His child, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a congressional representative, called for a gathering of his backers near his father's house to take place on Saturday evening.
Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on social media on Friday: Will you battle for your country, or observe everything from your mobile device there on your couch? I call on you to struggle with us."
He said the demonstration would be so supporters could offer prayers for his physical condition and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our nation."
Foreign Shelter Risks
Part of the judge's decision was the potential of Bolsonaro's move to diplomatic missions near the dwelling, considering that the probes revealed a history of organizing to seek refuge through a embassy office", a declaration said.
The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the US embassy in the national capital, the capital city, is positioned around 13km from Bolsonaro's home.
Worldwide Consequences
His judicial problems have provoked anger from fellow conservative nationalist US President Donald Trump, prompting him to implement a half-rate duty on goods coming from Brazil.
The former president is being held in a Federal Police station in Brasilia and will have a custody hearing on Sunday.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on last Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to permit him to fulfill his full incarceration period under domestic detention, with electronic monitoring.
They also requested that the former president be authorized to leave his home for medical treatment, saying he demanded ongoing care for pulmonary infections and other health problems.
Context of Sentencing
The former president was convicted of leading a scheme aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the presidential race to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Top judicial officials said that he was aware of a plot which encompassed plans to kill his opponent and his running partner, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill Alexandre de Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been overseeing his judicial proceedings.
The conspiracy was thwarted because it didn't receive the support of the military leaders. His successor was inaugurated without incident on the first day of 2023.
But a seven days after, on 8 January, many Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised public facilities in the national capital, Brazil's capital.
The police took action and around fifteen hundred individuals were taken into custody.
The justices found that the rioters had been provoked by him whose plan, they said, was for the national armed forces to step in, restore order and bring him back to power.
At the period, the legal team called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also prohibited from seeking elected position until the year 2060 - eight years after the end of his sentence.
The former president called the trial a political persecution and said it was intended to stop him running in the next presidential race.