🔗 Share this article

Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities concluded he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under domestic detention.

The ex-president was sentenced of orchestrating a armed takeover in last fall and sentenced more than over two decades in prison, but he was staying under confinement pending appeals.

Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the move to detain the septuagenarian politician was a precautionary step after fresh information were revealed.

This encompassed trying to remove his tracking device and a invitation to a supporters' gathering that could enable a potential flight.

Judicial Records Show Escape Risks

In a document approving the detention, the magistrate said information from the unit overseeing Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the ex-president's plan to remove the electronic ankle bracelet to secure accomplishment in his flight.

This, it said, would be "facilitated by the disorder caused by the demonstration called by his son.

His child, Flávio, who serves as a legislator, called for a assembly of his followers near his father's house to take place on Saturday evening.

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on online platforms on last Friday: Will you battle for your homeland, or watch it all from your mobile device there on your settee? I call on you to fight with us."

He said the gathering would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his physical condition and for the return of democracy in our land."

Foreign Shelter Risks

Part of the judge's decision was the chance of the former president's move to foreign missions near the home, considering that the investigations revealed a history of planning to ask for protection through a embassy office", a declaration said.

The court filing underscores that the United States embassy in the national capital, Brazil's capital, is positioned around 13km from his dwelling.

International Reactions

The former president's legal troubles have drawn the ire of fellow conservative nationalist American leader President Trump, causing him to impose a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports.

Bolsonaro is being held in a federal law enforcement building in Brasilia and will experience a custody hearing on Sunday.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on the previous day that the his legal team asked the Top Court to allow him to fulfill his full incarceration period under house arrest, with tracking devices.

They also requested that he be permitted to depart his residence for healthcare, saying he required ongoing care for lung conditions and other illnesses.

Details of Guilty Verdict

He was convicted of leading a conspiracy aimed at maintaining his control after he failed to win the national vote to his ideological adversary, Lula.

High Court judges said that he had knowledge of a scheme which encompassed plans to assassinate his opponent and his running partner, his vice-presidential candidate, and to detain and kill Alexandre de Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been overseeing his judicial proceedings.

The scheme was prevented because it didn't receive the backing of the army and air force commanders. The current president was sworn in without problem on the first day of 2023.

But a seven days after, on the eighth of January, numerous his backers attacked and damaged government buildings in the national capital, Brasília.

The security forces took action and around 1,500 people were detained.

The justices found that the rioters had been incited by the former president whose plan, they said, was for the Brazilian military to step in, reestablish control and reinstate his authority.

At the period, the legal team called the decades-long sentence extremely harsh.

He was also barred from campaigning for office until the year 2060 - eight years after the end of his sentence.

The one-time head of state called the court case a political persecution and said it was intended to stop him running in the next presidential race.