Jair Bolsonaro detained after being considered a flight risk
The former Brazilian leader has been arrested after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under domestic detention.
The ex-president was found guilty of orchestrating a armed takeover in last fall and given more than a 27-year term in prison, but he continued under house arrest pending legal challenges.
Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a safety action after "new facts" came to light.
This included trying to remove his tracking device and a summons to a supporters' gathering that could "allow for a potential flight.
Judicial Records Show Escape Risks
In a document approving the custody, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the centre monitoring Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the ex-president's aim to disable the electronic ankle bracelet to secure accomplishment in his escape.
This, it said, would be made easier by the confusion caused by the protest called by his son.
His child, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a senator, called for a assembly of his supporters near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday night.
His son wrote on online platforms on Friday: "Are you going to fight for your nation, or observe everything from your phone there on your sofa? 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 return of democracy in our country."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the magistrate's decision was the potential of the former president's move to embassies near the home, considering that the inquiries revealed a history of organizing to seek refuge through a embassy office", a announcement said.
The court filing highlights that the United States embassy in the federal district, Brasilia, is situated around approximately 13 kilometers from Bolsonaro's home.
Global Responses
His judicial problems have provoked anger from fellow right-wing populist American leader President Trump, leading him to impose a fifty percent tax on goods coming from Brazil.
Bolsonaro is being detained in a national police facility in Brasilia and will have a custody hearing on Sunday.
Recent Judicial Appeals
It was only on last Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Top Court to permit him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest, with electronic monitoring.
They also asked that Bolsonaro be allowed to exit his dwelling for healthcare, saying he required frequent medical attention for pulmonary infections and other illnesses.
Background on Conviction
The former president was found guilty of orchestrating a scheme aimed at maintaining his control after he failed to win the national vote to his political opponent, Lula.
High Court judges said that he was aware 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 top judicial official who has been managing his judicial proceedings.
The plot was prevented because it didn't receive the support of the military leaders. The current president was inaugurated without incident on 1 January 2023.
But a week later, on 8 January, numerous his followers stormed and vandalised official structures in the capital, Brazil's capital.
The security forces intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.
The justices found that the rioters had been incited by Bolsonaro whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to intervene, bring back stability and bring him back to power.
At the moment, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also prohibited from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.
The ex-leader called the court case a political persecution and said it was intended to stop him participating in the 2026 presidential election.
