🔗 Share this article

Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under home confinement.

The former head of state was sentenced of orchestrating a government overthrow in the ninth month and given more than 27 years in prison, but he remained under confinement pending legal challenges.

Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the decision to arrest the 70-year-old politician was a safety action after fresh information emerged.

This included seeking to disable his ankle monitor and a summons to a demonstration that could facilitate a chance to flee".

Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns

In a paperwork permitting the detention, Justice Moraes said data from the unit overseeing his home detention suggested the former leader's "intention to break the surveillance device to ensure success in his escape.

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

His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a legislator, called for a meeting of his followers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday night.

The senator wrote on online platforms on last Friday: "Are you going to fight for your nation, 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 supporters could "pray for his physical condition and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our land."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of the magistrate's ruling was the possibility of his transfer to embassies near the home, considering that the probes revealed a record of organizing to request asylum through a consular facility", a declaration said.

The judicial paperwork highlights that the US embassy in the federal district, Brasilia, is positioned around 8 miles from Bolsonaro's home.

Worldwide Consequences

His judicial problems have drawn the ire of fellow conservative nationalist US President Donald Trump, prompting him to implement a half-rate duty on goods coming from Brazil.

Bolsonaro is being held in a national police facility in the capital and will experience a detention review on Sunday.

Recent Judicial Appeals

It was only on last Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to permit him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest, with digital surveillance.

They also petitioned that Bolsonaro be allowed to leave his home for medical treatment, saying he demanded ongoing care for pulmonary infections and other illnesses.

Details of Guilty Verdict

Bolsonaro was convicted of heading a plot aimed at retaining his authority after he failed to win the 2022 election to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a plan which encompassed plans to kill Lula and his running partner, Alckmin, and to imprison and murder the presiding judge - the Supreme Court justice who has been overseeing the former president's case.

The plot was prevented because it didn't receive the endorsement of the army and air force commanders. The current president was took office without issue on the first day of 2023.

But a week later, on January 8th, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters invaded and destroyed public facilities in the federal district, the capital city.

The police stepped in and around approximately 1,500 persons were arrested.

The justices found that the rioters had been incited by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, reestablish control and bring him back to power.

At the time, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the over 27-year sentence unreasonably severe".

He was also prohibited from running for public office until 2060 - eight years later after the end of his sentence.

The former president called the legal proceedings a targeted investigation" and said it was intended to stop him running in the next presidential race.