Jair Bolsonaro detained after being considered a escape threat
Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities found he posed a definite escape threat while under domestic detention.
The ex-president was convicted of plotting a military coup in last fall and handed more than a 27-year term in prison, but he remained under home detention pending appeals.
Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the decision to arrest the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" emerged.
This involved trying to remove his electronic bracelet and a invitation to a supporters' gathering that could facilitate a potential flight.
Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns
In a paperwork permitting the detention, the magistrate said intelligence from the centre monitoring his home detention suggested the former leader's aim to disable the tracking monitor to secure accomplishment in his flight.
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the disorder caused by the protest called by his son.
His child, Flávio, who serves as a senator, called for a meeting of his followers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday evening.
His son wrote on digital networks on last Friday: "Are you going to fight for your nation, or watch it all from your phone there on your couch? I urge you to battle with us."
He said the vigil would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his well-being and for the restoration of democratic rule in our land."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the judge's decision was the chance of his "relocation to embassies near the home, considering that the inquiries revealed a background of planning to seek refuge through a diplomatic representation", a statement said.
The judicial paperwork highlights that the American diplomatic mission in the capital, Brasilia, is located around approximately 13 kilometers from Bolsonaro's home.
Worldwide Consequences
The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow populist conservative United States President Trump, leading him to enact a fifty percent tax on imports of Brazilian goods.
Bolsonaro is being detained in a Federal Police station in Brasilia and will experience a detention review on Sunday.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on last Friday that the his legal team asked the Supreme Court to permit him to complete his entire prison term under home confinement, with digital surveillance.
They also requested that Bolsonaro be allowed to exit his dwelling for medical care, saying he needed frequent medical attention for lung conditions and other ailments.
Details of Guilty Verdict
Bolsonaro was found guilty of leading a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after he failed to win the presidential race to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a scheme which encompassed plans to assassinate Lula and his VP candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to imprison and murder Alexandre de Moraes - the High Court judge who has been presiding over the former president's case.
The scheme was prevented because it failed to get the support of the armed forces officials. The current president was sworn in without problem on January 1st, 2023.
But a week later, on 8 January, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised government buildings in the capital, Brazil's capital.
The police intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were taken into custody.
The justices found that the rioters had been provoked by Bolsonaro whose strategy, they said, was for the country's army to take action, bring back stability and reinstate his authority.
At the period, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the over 27-year sentence "absurdly excessive.
He was also prohibited from running for public office until 2060 - a decade minus two years after the completion of his term.
The ex-leader called the legal proceedings a targeted investigation" and said it was designed to prevent him running in the 2026 presidential election.