Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities determined he posed a concrete flight risk while under house arrest.
The former head of state was found guilty of plotting a military coup in September and sentenced more than 27 years in prison, but he was staying under home detention pending legal challenges.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the move to detain the elderly politician was a preventative measure after fresh information emerged.
This encompassed attempting to break his tracking device and a summons to a supporters' gathering that could facilitate a potential flight.
Legal Document Reveals Escape Risks
In a filing authorising the custody, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the facility tracking his home detention suggested the one-time head of state's aim to disable the electronic ankle bracelet to ensure success in his flight.
This, it said, would be made easier by the chaos caused by the gathering called by his child.
His offspring, Flávio Bolsonaro, who holds office as a congressional representative, called for a assembly of his supporters near the former president's residence to take place on the weekend.
His son wrote on social media on the previous day: Do you plan to struggle for your nation, or watch it all from your mobile device there on your sofa? I urge you to battle with us."
He said the demonstration would be so supporters could offer prayers for his health and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our country."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of Justice Moraes's determination was the chance of his move to foreign missions near the residence, considering that the investigations revealed a background of organizing to ask for protection through a embassy office", a declaration said.
The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the American diplomatic mission in the federal district, the capital city, is positioned around 13km from the former president's residence.
Global Responses
His judicial problems have provoked anger from fellow populist conservative American leader Donald Trump, leading him to enact a half-rate duty on Brazilian product imports.
Bolsonaro is being detained in a Federal Police station in Brasilia and will experience a imprisonment assessment on the following day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on last Friday that the his legal team asked the Top Court to permit him to fulfill his full incarceration period under house arrest, with electronic monitoring.
They also asked that he be authorized to exit his dwelling for healthcare, saying he demanded regular treatment for lung conditions and other illnesses.
Background on Conviction
He was determined responsible of orchestrating a conspiracy aimed at maintaining his control after he failed to win the national vote to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
High Court judges said that he was aware of a plan which involved plans to kill Lula and his running partner, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill Justice Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been presiding over Bolsonaro's trial.
The conspiracy was prevented because it failed to get the endorsement of the army and air force commanders. The current president was took office without issue on the first day of 2023.
But a following week, on January 8th, numerous Bolsonaro supporters invaded and destroyed public facilities in the federal district, the capital city.
The police stepped in and around fifteen hundred individuals were arrested.
The magistrates found that the protesters had been incited by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, bring back stability and bring him back to power.
At the moment, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the 27 years and three months sentence extremely harsh.
He was also banned from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - eight years after the completion of his term.
The one-time head of state called the court case a "witch hunt and said it was designed to prevent him running in the 2026 presidential election.
