Jair Bolsonaro arrested after being declared a escape threat
Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities determined he posed a concrete flight risk while under domestic detention.
The ex-president was convicted of orchestrating a armed takeover in the ninth month and handed more than 27 years in incarceration, but he continued under confinement pending court reviews.
High Court Judge Justice Moraes said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a safety action after "new facts" came to light.
This involved trying to remove his ankle monitor and a summons to a public vigil that could enable a potential flight.
Court Filing Details Flight Fears
In a paperwork permitting the detention, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's aim to disable the electronic ankle bracelet to guarantee victory in his flight.
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the confusion caused by the protest called by his child.
His child, his son Flávio, who holds office as a congressional representative, called for a gathering of his supporters near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.
Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on social media on Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your country, or observe everything from your phone there on your sofa? I call on you to struggle with us."
He said the demonstration would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his well-being and for the restoration of democratic rule in our country."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the judge's decision was the possibility of the former president's "relocation to diplomatic missions near the residence, considering that the probes revealed a background of arranging to seek refuge through a consular facility", a declaration said.
The legal document emphasizes that the United States embassy in the capital, the capital city, is positioned around 8 miles from the former president's residence.
International Reactions
His judicial problems have provoked anger from fellow populist conservative United States President Trump, prompting him to enact a 50% tariff on Brazilian product imports.
He is being detained in a Federal Police station in Brazil's capital city and will have a detention review on Sunday.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on the previous day that the his legal team asked the Top Court to permit him to fulfill his full incarceration period under house arrest, with tracking devices.
They also requested that he be allowed to leave his home for medical care, saying he demanded frequent medical attention for pulmonary infections and other illnesses.
Details of Guilty Verdict
He was found guilty of heading a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the presidential race to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a plan which included plans to murder his opponent and his vice-presidential running mate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to imprison and murder the presiding judge - the Supreme Court justice who has been presiding over his judicial proceedings.
The scheme was stopped because it failed to get the support of the military leaders. His successor was sworn in without issue on the first day of 2023.
But a week later, on January 8th, many his followers invaded and destroyed government buildings in the national capital, Brasília.
The security forces intervened and around approximately 1,500 persons were arrested.
The magistrates found that the rioters had been incited by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the country's army to take action, restore order and bring him back to power.
At the moment, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also barred from campaigning for office until 2060 - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.
The one-time head of state called the trial a "witch hunt and said it was intended to stop him competing in the next presidential race.