The former Brazilian president arrested after being declared a flight risk
The former Brazilian leader has been arrested after authorities found he posed a concrete flight risk while under domestic detention.
The ex-president was found guilty of plotting a military coup in September and sentenced more than over two decades in prison, but he remained under home detention pending legal challenges.
Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the move to detain the septuagenarian politician was a safety action after fresh information came to light.
This involved attempting to break his ankle monitor and a summons to a public vigil that could enable a possible escape.
Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns
In a paperwork permitting the arrest, the judge said information from the facility tracking Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the one-time head of state's plan to remove the electronic ankle bracelet to guarantee victory in his flight.
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the confusion caused by the demonstration called by his child.
His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a congressional representative, called for a gathering of his followers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.
His son wrote on digital networks 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 fight with us."
He said the gathering would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his health and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our land."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the magistrate's ruling was the possibility of his move to diplomatic missions near the dwelling, considering that the probes revealed a background of organizing to seek refuge through a consular facility", a statement said.
The legal document underscores that the US embassy in the capital, the capital city, is located around 8 miles from Bolsonaro's home.
Global Responses
His judicial problems have provoked anger from fellow populist conservative United States President Trump, prompting him to implement a fifty percent tax on goods coming from Brazil.
Bolsonaro is being kept in a national police facility in the capital and will experience a detention review on Sunday.
Recent Judicial Appeals
It was only on Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Top Court to allow him to complete his entire prison term under domestic detention, with electronic monitoring.
They also asked that the former president be allowed to leave his home for medical care, saying he required ongoing care for lung conditions and other ailments.
Context of Sentencing
Bolsonaro was determined responsible of leading a plot aimed at maintaining his control after he failed to win the national vote to his political opponent, Lula.
Top judicial officials said that he knew of a scheme which included plans to assassinate his opponent and his running partner, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the Supreme Court justice who has been overseeing Bolsonaro's trial.
The conspiracy was thwarted because it failed to get the backing of the armed forces officials. Lula was sworn in without problem on 1 January 2023.
But a following week, on the eighth of January, numerous his backers attacked and damaged official structures in the federal district, Brasília.
The police stepped in and around fifteen hundred individuals were arrested.
The magistrates found that the protesters had been provoked by him whose strategy, they said, was for the country's army to take action, bring back stability and reinstate his authority.
At the time, the legal team called the 27 years and three months sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also barred from campaigning for office until 2060 - a decade minus two years after the completion of his term.
The ex-leader called the legal proceedings a "witch hunt and said it was intended to stop him running in the 2026 national vote.