Bolsonaro taken into custody after being considered a risk of fleeing
Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities concluded he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under home confinement.
The former head of state was sentenced of plotting a government overthrow in last fall and sentenced more than a 27-year term in prison, but he continued under home detention pending court reviews.
Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the decision to arrest the septuagenarian politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" were revealed.
This included trying to remove his tracking device and a call for a public vigil that could facilitate a potential flight.
Legal Document Reveals Flight Fears
In a document approving the detention, the magistrate said data from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's plan to remove the electronic ankle bracelet to secure accomplishment in his flight.
This, it said, would be assisted by the disorder caused by the demonstration called by his offspring.
His son, Flávio, who works as a congressional representative, called for a gathering of his backers near the former president's residence to take place on the weekend.
Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on social media on Friday: Will you battle for your homeland, or see it all from your smartphone there on your settee? I invite you to struggle with us."
He said the demonstration would be so supporters could offer prayers for his well-being and for the restoration of democratic rule in our land."
Foreign Shelter Risks
Part of the magistrate's ruling was the potential of the former president's "relocation to foreign missions near the home, considering that the probes revealed a record of planning to ask for protection through a consular facility", a statement said.
The judicial paperwork highlights that the US embassy in the national capital, Brazil's capital, is situated around 13km from the former president's residence.
Worldwide Consequences
His judicial problems have provoked anger from fellow conservative nationalist United States President Donald Trump, causing him to implement a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports.
The former president is being kept in a federal law enforcement building in Brasilia and will have a custody hearing on the next day.
Recent Judicial Appeals
It was only on the previous day that the former president's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest, with digital surveillance.
They also petitioned that the former president be authorized to depart his residence for medical care, saying he required frequent medical attention for pulmonary infections and other health problems.
Background on Conviction
The former president was determined responsible of orchestrating a plot aimed at retaining his authority after he failed to win the presidential race to his ideological adversary, Lula.
Top judicial officials said that he was aware of a plot which encompassed plans to kill the current president and his running partner, Geraldo Alckmin, and to imprison and murder the presiding judge - the Supreme Court justice who has been managing his judicial proceedings.
The conspiracy was thwarted because it couldn't obtain the backing of the armed forces officials. His successor was sworn in without issue on January 1st, 2023.
But a seven days after, on January 8th, thousands of his followers stormed and vandalised official structures in the national capital, Brasília.
The law enforcement intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.
The magistrates found that the demonstrators had been encouraged by the former president whose plan, they said, was for the national armed forces to step in, restore order and return him to office.
At the time, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence "absurdly excessive.
He was also barred from running for public office until the year 2060 - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.
The former president called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was intended to stop him running in the 2026 national vote.
