Jair Bolsonaro detained after being declared a risk of fleeing
Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities found he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under home confinement.
The one-time leader was found guilty of orchestrating a armed takeover in September and handed more than over two decades in incarceration, but he remained under home detention pending legal challenges.
Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the decision to arrest the 70-year-old politician was a safety action after fresh information came to light.
This encompassed seeking to disable his ankle monitor and a summons to a demonstration that could "allow for a chance to flee".
Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns
In a document approving the custody, Justice Moraes said information from the centre monitoring his home detention suggested the one-time head of state's plan to remove the tracking monitor to ensure success in his getaway".
This, it said, would be made easier by the chaos caused by the demonstration called by his son.
His offspring, his son Flávio, who holds office as a senator, called for a assembly of his followers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday night.
The senator wrote on online platforms on last Friday: "Are you going to fight for your country, or observe everything from your mobile device there on your sofa? I call on you to battle with us."
He said the vigil would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our country."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the magistrate's ruling was the potential of the former president's "relocation to foreign missions near the dwelling, considering that the probes revealed a background of arranging to seek refuge through a consular facility", a announcement said.
The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the American diplomatic mission in the national capital, Brasilia, is located around 8 miles from Bolsonaro's home.
Global Responses
The former president's legal troubles have drawn the ire of fellow populist conservative American leader Donald Trump, leading him to impose a 50% tariff on imports of Brazilian goods.
The former president is being kept in a federal law enforcement building in the capital and will undergo a custody hearing on Sunday.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on the previous day that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Supreme Court to authorize him to fulfill his full incarceration period under domestic detention, with electronic monitoring.
They also asked that Bolsonaro be permitted to exit his dwelling for medical treatment, saying he required frequent medical attention for lung conditions and other health problems.
Context of Sentencing
He was found guilty of orchestrating a scheme aimed at maintaining his control after he was defeated in the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, Lula.
Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a scheme which encompassed plans to assassinate the current president and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to imprison and murder Alexandre de Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been presiding over Bolsonaro's trial.
The scheme was stopped because it didn't receive the backing of the army and air force commanders. Lula was sworn in without issue on 1 January 2023.
But a seven days after, on the eighth of January, thousands of his followers stormed and vandalised government buildings in the federal district, Brasília.
The law enforcement took action and around 1,500 people were arrested.
The magistrates found that the rioters had been provoked by him whose strategy, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, restore order and bring him back to power.
At the time, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence extremely harsh.
He was also banned from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the completion of his term.
The one-time head of state called the trial a targeted investigation" and said it was aimed at blocking him running in the next presidential race.