Jair Bolsonaro taken into custody after being considered a flight risk
Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities determined he posed a definite escape threat while under house arrest.
The ex-president was convicted of planning a armed takeover in the ninth month and handed more than a 27-year term in jail, but he was staying under house arrest pending court reviews.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the decision to arrest the septuagenarian politician was a safety action after fresh information were revealed.
This encompassed attempting to break his tracking device and a call for a supporters' gathering that could facilitate a possible escape.
Court Filing Details Flight Fears
In a paperwork permitting the arrest, the magistrate said data from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's plan to remove the surveillance device to ensure success in his escape.
This, it said, would be made easier by the confusion caused by the gathering called by his son.
His offspring, Flávio, who works as a congressional representative, called for a meeting of his backers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.
The senator wrote on digital networks on Friday: "Are you going to fight for your country, or see it all from your smartphone there on your couch? I invite you to battle with us."
He said the demonstration would be so followers could offer prayers for his well-being and for the restoration of democratic rule in our land."
Foreign Shelter Risks
Part of the judge's determination was the potential of Bolsonaro's "relocation to foreign missions near the home, considering that the inquiries revealed a history of organizing to ask for protection through a embassy office", a declaration said.
The legal document highlights that the US embassy in the federal district, Brazil's capital, is located around 13km from Bolsonaro's home.
Global Responses
His judicial problems have drawn the ire of fellow populist conservative US President Donald Trump, prompting him to impose a half-rate duty on goods coming from Brazil.
The former president is being kept in a Federal Police station in Brasilia and will have a detention review on the next day.
Recent Judicial Appeals
It was only on the previous day that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the High Court to permit him to serve his whole jail sentence under domestic detention, with digital surveillance.
They also petitioned that the former president be authorized to depart his residence for medical care, saying he needed regular treatment for respiratory ailments and other illnesses.
Context of Sentencing
Bolsonaro was determined responsible of heading a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he was defeated in the 2022 election to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a plot which included plans to kill Lula and his running partner, his vice-presidential candidate, and to imprison and murder Justice Moraes - the High Court judge who has been managing the former president's case.
The conspiracy was stopped because it couldn't obtain the endorsement of the army and air force commanders. His successor was took office without issue on January 1st, 2023.
But a week later, on 8 January, thousands of his backers stormed and vandalised public facilities in the federal district, Brazil's capital.
The police took action and around fifteen hundred individuals were arrested.
The justices found that the rioters had been incited by him whose plan, they said, was for the country's army to intervene, restore order and reinstate his authority.
At the moment, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence extremely harsh.
He was also banned from seeking elected position until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.
The one-time head of state called the court case a political persecution and said it was designed to prevent him running in the next presidential race.