Bolsonaro detained after being declared a escape threat
The former Brazilian leader has been taken into custody after authorities found he posed a concrete flight risk while under house arrest.
The former head of state was found guilty of planning a military coup in the ninth month and sentenced more than a 27-year term in jail, but he was staying under home detention pending legal challenges.
Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the decision to arrest the septuagenarian politician was a safety action after "new facts" came to light.
This encompassed attempting to break his electronic bracelet and a summons to a public vigil that could enable a chance to flee".
Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns
In a filing authorising the custody, the judge said intelligence from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the former leader's aim to disable the tracking monitor to ensure success in his getaway".
This, it said, would be assisted by the disorder caused by the demonstration called by his child.
His offspring, his son Flávio, who serves as a congressional representative, called for a assembly of his supporters near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.
The senator wrote on social media on last Friday: Will you battle for your country, or watch it all from your mobile device there on your couch? I invite you to struggle with us."
He said the gathering would be so supporters could "pray for his physical condition and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our land."
Foreign Shelter Risks
Part of Justice Moraes's ruling was the potential of Bolsonaro's "relocation to embassies near the residence, considering that the inquiries revealed a history of arranging to ask for protection through a consular facility", a declaration said.
The court filing highlights that the United States embassy in the national capital, Brazil's capital, is positioned around approximately 13 kilometers from the former president's residence.
Worldwide Consequences
Bolsonaro's legal woes have provoked anger from fellow populist conservative US President Trump, leading him to impose a fifty percent tax on goods coming from Brazil.
Bolsonaro is being held in a Federal Police station in Brazil's capital city and will have a custody hearing on the next day.
Recent Judicial Appeals
It was only on Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under home confinement, with digital surveillance.
They also requested that Bolsonaro be permitted to depart his residence for medical care, saying he needed ongoing care for pulmonary infections and other illnesses.
Background on Conviction
The former president was determined responsible of orchestrating a scheme aimed at maintaining his control after he lost the 2022 election to his left-wing rival, President Lula.
High Court judges said that he was aware of a scheme which involved plans to assassinate Lula and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to detain and kill Alexandre de Moraes - the top judicial official who has been managing Bolsonaro's trial.
The plot was thwarted because it didn't receive the endorsement of the armed forces officials. Lula was sworn in without issue on January 1st, 2023.
But a following week, on 8 January, thousands of his followers stormed and vandalised public facilities in the national capital, the capital city.
The security forces took action and around 1,500 people were arrested.
The justices found that the rioters had been provoked by him whose scheme, they said, was for the national armed forces to step in, bring back stability and reinstate his authority.
At the time, his attorneys called the 27 years and three months sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also banned from running for public office until 2060 - a decade minus two years after the completion of his term.
The former president called the court case a "witch hunt and said it was aimed at blocking him competing in the next presidential race.