Jair Bolsonaro arrested after being considered a escape threat
Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities determined he posed a definite escape threat while under home confinement.
The ex-president was sentenced of plotting a government overthrow in the ninth month and given more than 27 years in prison, but he continued under house arrest pending legal challenges.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice the presiding justice said the action to imprison the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" were revealed.
This encompassed trying to remove his electronic bracelet and a invitation to a public vigil that could facilitate a potential flight.
Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns
In a paperwork permitting the arrest, the judge said data from the unit overseeing Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the one-time head of state's aim to disable the tracking monitor to secure accomplishment in his flight.
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the chaos caused by the protest called by his son.
His child, Flávio Bolsonaro, who serves as a senator, called for a assembly of his followers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on the weekend.
The senator wrote on social media on the previous day: Do you plan to struggle for your country, or observe everything from your phone there on your couch? I call on you to battle with us."
He said the demonstration would be so backers could seek divine intervention for his physical condition and for the return of democracy in our country."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the magistrate's ruling was the potential of Bolsonaro's move to foreign missions near the dwelling, considering that the investigations revealed a background of planning to ask for protection through a consular facility", a statement said.
The judicial paperwork underscores that the US embassy in the federal district, the capital city, is positioned around 13km from Bolsonaro's home.
International Reactions
The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow right-wing populist US President Donald Trump, leading him to implement a half-rate duty on goods coming from Brazil.
Bolsonaro is being detained in a national police facility in the capital and will undergo a detention review on the next day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on last Friday that the his legal team asked the Supreme Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under domestic detention, with electronic monitoring.
They also petitioned that Bolsonaro be permitted to exit his dwelling for healthcare, saying he needed regular treatment for lung conditions and other ailments.
Background on Conviction
Bolsonaro was determined responsible of leading a conspiracy aimed at maintaining his control after he lost the presidential race to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
High Court judges said that he knew of a plan which included plans to murder the current president and his VP candidate, Alckmin, and to imprison and murder Alexandre de Moraes - the High Court judge who has been overseeing Bolsonaro's trial.
The scheme was thwarted because it failed to get the backing of the army and air force commanders. His successor was took office without incident on the first day of 2023.
But a week later, on 8 January, thousands of his backers invaded and destroyed government buildings in the federal district, the capital city.
The police stepped in and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.
The judges found that the demonstrators had been incited by him whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to step in, restore order and bring him back to power.
At the moment, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also banned from seeking elected position until 2060 - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.
The one-time head of state called the trial a "witch hunt and said it was designed to prevent him competing in the 2026 presidential election.