🔗 Share this article

Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities determined he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under domestic detention.

The one-time leader was found guilty of planning a armed takeover in September and sentenced more than 27 years in prison, but he was staying under confinement pending legal challenges.

High Court Judge Justice Moraes said the move to detain the 70-year-old politician was a safety action after "new facts" emerged.

This encompassed attempting to break his ankle monitor and a summons to a demonstration that could facilitate a chance to flee".

Court Filing Details Escape Risks

In a paperwork permitting the detention, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's aim to disable the tracking monitor to ensure success in his flight.

This, it said, would be "facilitated by the disorder caused by the demonstration called by his offspring.

His son, his son Flávio, who serves as a congressional representative, called for a gathering of his followers near his father's house to take place on the weekend.

The senator wrote on online platforms on last Friday: Will you battle for your country, or see it all from your phone there on your sofa? I invite you to battle with us."

He said the gathering would be so supporters could "pray for his health and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our land."

Foreign Shelter Risks

Part of the magistrate's determination was the potential of his transfer to foreign missions near the dwelling, considering that the probes revealed a background of arranging to seek refuge through a embassy office", a declaration said.

The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the US embassy in the national capital, Brasilia, is positioned around 8 miles from his dwelling.

International Reactions

Bolsonaro's legal woes have provoked anger from fellow right-wing populist American leader Trump, leading him to enact a fifty percent tax on Brazilian product imports.

Bolsonaro is being detained in a Federal Police station in Brazil's capital city and will experience a custody hearing on the following day.

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on Friday that the his legal team asked the Supreme Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under home confinement, with digital surveillance.

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

Background on Conviction

Bolsonaro was found guilty of leading a plot aimed at maintaining his control after he failed to win the national vote to his ideological adversary, Lula.

High Court judges said that he was aware of a scheme which included plans to murder the current president and his VP candidate, Alckmin, and to imprison and murder the presiding judge - the Supreme Court justice who has been overseeing Bolsonaro's trial.

The conspiracy was thwarted because it didn't receive the backing of the armed forces officials. His successor was took office without issue on the first day of 2023.

But a following week, on 8 January, thousands of his backers invaded and destroyed official structures in the capital, Brasília.

The security forces stepped in and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.

The justices found that the protesters had been encouraged by him whose plan, they said, was for the national armed forces to intervene, bring back stability and reinstate his authority.

At the period, his attorneys called the over 27-year sentence unreasonably severe".

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

The ex-leader called the court case a political persecution and said it was aimed at blocking him participating in the 2026 national vote.