Bolsonaro taken into custody after being considered a escape threat
Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities found he posed a definite escape threat while under house arrest.
The one-time leader was found guilty of plotting a government overthrow in the ninth month and given more than over two decades in jail, but he remained under confinement pending appeals.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Justice Moraes said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a preventative measure after "new facts" were revealed.
This included trying to remove his ankle monitor and a call for a supporters' gathering that could enable a potential flight.
Judicial Records Show Escape Risks
In a paperwork permitting the detention, Justice Moraes said information from the unit overseeing his home detention suggested the one-time head of state's "intention to break the electronic ankle bracelet to secure accomplishment in his flight.
This, it said, would be assisted by the confusion caused by the protest called by his son.
His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a congressional representative, called for a assembly of his followers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday night.
Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on online platforms on Friday: "Are you going to fight for your homeland, or watch it all from your mobile device there on your settee? I invite you to battle with us."
He said the gathering would be so followers could "pray for his well-being and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."
Diplomatic Refuge Fears
Part of the magistrate's ruling was the potential of Bolsonaro's "relocation to embassies near the home, considering that the investigations revealed a record of arranging to seek refuge through a embassy office", a declaration said.
The judicial paperwork highlights that the US embassy in the capital, Brazil's capital, is located around 8 miles from the former president's residence.
International Reactions
His judicial problems have drawn the ire of fellow conservative nationalist US President President Trump, leading him to enact a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports.
He is being kept in a Federal Police station in Brasilia and will undergo a detention review on Sunday.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on the previous day that the former president's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to allow him to fulfill his full incarceration period under domestic detention, with digital surveillance.
They also asked that Bolsonaro be authorized to depart his residence for medical care, saying he required ongoing care for pulmonary infections and other health problems.
Context of Sentencing
He was found guilty of heading a conspiracy aimed at maintaining his control after he lost the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
High Court judges said that he knew of a scheme which involved plans to kill his opponent and his running partner, his vice-presidential candidate, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the top judicial official who has been overseeing his judicial proceedings.
The plot was thwarted because it didn't receive the backing of the military leaders. The current president was inaugurated without issue on the first day of 2023.
But a seven days after, on January 8th, thousands of his backers attacked and damaged public facilities in the federal district, the capital city.
The police took action and around fifteen hundred individuals were arrested.
The magistrates found that the demonstrators had been provoked by Bolsonaro whose strategy, they said, was for the country's army to intervene, reestablish control and bring him back to power.
At the period, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also banned from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - eight years later after the end of his sentence.
The former president called the trial a "witch hunt and said it was designed to prevent him running in the 2026 presidential election.