Bolsonaro taken into custody after being deemed a flight risk
Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities found he posed a concrete flight risk while under house arrest.
The former head of state was convicted of planning a military coup in last fall and sentenced more than over two decades in incarceration, but he continued under home detention pending legal challenges.
High Court Judge the presiding justice said the decision to arrest the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" were revealed.
This encompassed trying to remove his tracking device and a invitation to a public vigil that could "allow for a possible escape.
Judicial Records Show Escape Concerns
In a paperwork permitting the custody, the judge said intelligence from the facility tracking Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the ex-president's "intention to break the tracking monitor to secure accomplishment in his getaway".
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the confusion caused by the demonstration called by his child.
His son, Flávio, who serves as a senator, called for a gathering of his backers near his father's house to take place on the weekend.
His son wrote on social media on the previous day: Do you plan to struggle for your homeland, or see it all from your mobile device there on your sofa? I invite you to fight with us."
He said the vigil would be so supporters could offer prayers for his health and for the restoration of democratic rule in our land."
Diplomatic Refuge Fears
Part of the judge's decision was the potential of Bolsonaro's transfer to diplomatic missions near the dwelling, considering that the inquiries revealed a record of organizing to request asylum through a embassy office", a statement said.
The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the US embassy in the capital, Brazil's capital, is positioned around 13km from Bolsonaro's home.
Worldwide Consequences
The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow populist conservative US President President Trump, leading him to implement a fifty percent tax on imports of Brazilian goods.
Bolsonaro is being kept in a Federal Police station in the capital and will experience a detention review on the following day.
Recent Judicial Appeals
It was only on Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Top Court to authorize him to complete his entire prison term under home confinement, with electronic monitoring.
They also requested that he be permitted to exit his dwelling for healthcare, saying he required regular treatment for pulmonary infections and other ailments.
Context of Sentencing
Bolsonaro was determined responsible of leading a conspiracy aimed at retaining his authority after he was defeated in the presidential race to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a plan which involved plans to assassinate Lula and his VP candidate, Alckmin, and to arrest and execute Justice Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been overseeing the former president's case.
The plot was stopped because it failed to get the support of the armed forces officials. His successor was sworn in without incident on the first day of 2023.
But a week later, on the eighth of January, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised official structures in the capital, Brazil's capital.
The law enforcement took action and around fifteen hundred individuals were arrested.
The justices found that the rioters had been incited by him whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, bring back stability and bring him back to power.
At the time, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the over 27-year sentence extremely harsh.
He was also prohibited from campaigning for office until the year 2060 - eight years later after the end of his sentence.
The one-time head of state called the court case a "witch hunt and said it was designed to prevent him running in the next presidential race.