Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities concluded he posed a definite escape threat while under home confinement.
The ex-president was convicted of planning a government overthrow in September and handed more than 27 years in incarceration, but he continued under home detention pending legal challenges.
Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the move to detain the 70-year-old politician was a safety action after recent developments emerged.
This encompassed seeking to disable his tracking device and a call for a public vigil that could facilitate a possible escape.
Judicial Records Show Escape Risks
In a paperwork permitting the detention, the magistrate said intelligence from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's aim to disable the tracking monitor to guarantee victory in his getaway".
This, it said, would be made easier by the confusion caused by the protest called by his offspring.
His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a senator, called for a gathering of his backers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday night.
Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on online platforms on the previous day: Will you battle for your homeland, or watch it all from your mobile device there on your couch? I call on you to battle with us."
He said the vigil would be so followers could seek divine intervention for his health and for the restoration of democratic rule in our land."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the judge's ruling was the potential of his transfer to embassies near the residence, considering that the investigations revealed a background of planning to ask for protection through a consular facility", a statement said.
The judicial paperwork underscores that the American diplomatic mission in the national capital, Brasilia, is positioned around approximately 13 kilometers from Bolsonaro's home.
International Reactions
Bolsonaro's legal woes have generated frustration from fellow populist conservative US President President Trump, causing him to enact a 50% tariff on Brazilian product imports.
Bolsonaro is being kept in a national police facility in Brasilia and will undergo a imprisonment assessment on the next day.
Recent Legal Requests
It was only on Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the High Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under home confinement, with tracking devices.
They also asked that the former president be authorized to exit his dwelling for medical treatment, saying he demanded ongoing care for lung conditions and other ailments.
Background on Conviction
The former president was determined responsible of orchestrating a conspiracy aimed at maintaining his control after he failed to win the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
High Court judges said that he knew of a plot which involved plans to murder Lula and his vice-presidential running mate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to imprison and murder Justice Moraes - the High Court judge who has been presiding over his judicial proceedings.
The conspiracy was stopped because it didn't receive the backing of the military leaders. Lula was inaugurated without problem on January 1st, 2023.
But a following week, on January 8th, many his followers stormed and vandalised public facilities in the national capital, Brasília.
The security forces stepped in and around approximately 1,500 persons were detained.
The judges found that the protesters had been provoked by the former president whose plan, they said, was for the national armed forces to step in, reestablish control and reinstate his authority.
At the moment, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the over 27-year sentence "absurdly excessive.
He was also prohibited from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - eight years later after the end of his sentence.
The former president called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was aimed at blocking him running in the 2026 national vote.
