🔗 Share this article

Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities determined he posed a concrete flight risk while under house arrest.

The one-time leader was sentenced of plotting a government overthrow in last fall and given more than over two decades in jail, but he remained under home detention pending appeals.

High Court Judge the presiding justice said the action to imprison the 70-year-old politician was a preventative measure after recent developments emerged.

This involved attempting to break his electronic bracelet and a invitation to a supporters' gathering that could "allow for a possible escape.

Court Filing Details Escape Concerns

In a filing authorising the arrest, the judge said intelligence from the facility tracking his home detention suggested the one-time head of state's plan to remove the surveillance device to guarantee victory in his flight.

This, it said, would be made easier by the disorder caused by the protest called by his son.

His son, his son Flávio, who works as a congressional representative, called for a assembly of his supporters near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday night.

The senator wrote on digital networks on Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your country, or see it all from your phone there on your sofa? I call on you to struggle with us."

He said the vigil would be so backers could seek divine intervention for his health and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of Justice Moraes's determination was the chance of his "relocation to embassies near the residence, considering that the probes revealed a history of organizing to seek refuge through a diplomatic representation", a statement said.

The legal document emphasizes that the US embassy in the national capital, Brazil's capital, is located around approximately 13 kilometers from Bolsonaro's home.

International Reactions

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

The former president is being kept in a federal law enforcement building in Brazil's capital city and will undergo a custody hearing on Sunday.

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Supreme Court to permit him to serve his whole jail sentence under home confinement, with digital surveillance.

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

Context of Sentencing

The former president was convicted of leading a plot aimed at maintaining his control after he was defeated in the national vote to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a plan which included plans to kill the current president and his vice-presidential running mate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to imprison and murder Justice Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been managing his judicial proceedings.

The plot was prevented because it didn't receive the support of the armed forces officials. Lula was took office without incident on January 1st, 2023.

But a seven days after, on January 8th, numerous Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised public facilities in the national capital, Brazil's capital.

The police intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were taken into custody.

The justices found that the rioters had been incited by Bolsonaro whose strategy, they said, was for the Brazilian military to step in, restore order and return him to office.

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

He was also prohibited from running for public office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.

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