🔗 Share this article

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

The one-time leader was found guilty of plotting a armed takeover in September and given more than a 27-year term in incarceration, but he was staying under house arrest pending appeals.

High Court Judge Justice Moraes said the decision to arrest the septuagenarian politician was a precautionary step after recent developments came to light.

This included seeking to disable his tracking device and a invitation to a demonstration that could facilitate a chance to flee".

Court Filing Details Escape Risks

In a document approving the custody, Justice Moraes said information from the unit overseeing Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the former leader's "intention to break the tracking monitor to ensure success in his escape.

This, it said, would be assisted by the disorder caused by the protest called by his child.

His child, his son Flávio, who serves as a legislator, called for a assembly of his followers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday evening.

The senator wrote on social media on the previous day: "Are you going to fight for your nation, or observe everything from your phone there on your couch? I call on you to fight with us."

He said the gathering would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his physical condition and for the return of democracy in our land."

Diplomatic Refuge Fears

Part of the magistrate's decision was the potential of Bolsonaro's transfer to embassies near the residence, considering that the probes revealed a record of arranging to seek refuge through a diplomatic representation", a announcement said.

The legal document emphasizes that the US embassy in the federal district, Brasilia, is situated around 13km from his dwelling.

Global Responses

His judicial problems have drawn the ire of fellow right-wing populist US President Trump, prompting him to impose a half-rate duty on Brazilian product imports.

He is being held in a federal law enforcement building in Brazil's capital city and will undergo a imprisonment assessment on the next day.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on the previous day that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Top Court to authorize him to complete his entire prison term under house arrest, with digital surveillance.

They also requested that Bolsonaro be allowed to depart his residence for medical care, saying he needed regular treatment for pulmonary infections and other ailments.

Details of Guilty Verdict

He was convicted of orchestrating a scheme aimed at retaining his authority after he was defeated in the presidential race to his ideological adversary, Lula.

Top judicial officials said that he had knowledge of a scheme which involved plans to kill the current president and his running partner, Alckmin, and to detain and kill Alexandre de Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been overseeing the former president's case.

The conspiracy was prevented because it didn't receive the endorsement of the military leaders. The current president was took office without incident on the first day of 2023.

But a week later, on the eighth of January, numerous Bolsonaro supporters attacked and damaged official structures in the capital, Brasília.

The law enforcement stepped in and around approximately 1,500 persons were taken into custody.

The judges found that the rioters had been encouraged by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, restore order and return him to office.

At the period, his attorneys called the over 27-year sentence "absurdly excessive.

He was also banned from running for public office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the completion of his term.

The one-time head of state called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was aimed at blocking him competing in the 2026 national vote.