Jair Bolsonaro arrested after being declared a flight risk
Jair Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities found he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under house arrest.
The one-time leader was found guilty of orchestrating a government overthrow in the ninth month and handed more than over two decades in incarceration, but he remained under confinement pending legal challenges.
Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the move to detain the septuagenarian politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" emerged.
This involved seeking to disable his tracking device and a summons to a demonstration that could facilitate a chance to flee".
Court Filing Details Escape Risks
In a paperwork permitting the custody, Justice Moraes said information from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's "intention to break the tracking monitor to ensure success in his flight.
This, it said, would be made easier by the chaos caused by the demonstration called by his child.
His offspring, his son Flávio, who holds office as a senator, called for a assembly of his followers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday night.
The senator wrote on online platforms on the previous day: Will you battle for your country, or watch it all from your phone there on your couch? I call on you to struggle with us."
He said the demonstration would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our country."
Foreign Shelter Risks
Part of Justice Moraes's decision was the potential of his move to foreign missions near the home, considering that the inquiries revealed a record of arranging to seek refuge through a consular facility", a statement said.
The legal document underscores that the American diplomatic mission in the federal district, Brasilia, is positioned around 13km from the former president's residence.
International Reactions
Bolsonaro's legal woes have drawn the ire of fellow populist conservative American leader President Trump, causing him to enact a fifty percent tax on goods coming from Brazil.
The former president is being held in a federal law enforcement building in the capital and will undergo a imprisonment assessment on Sunday.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to authorize him to fulfill his full incarceration period under domestic detention, with electronic monitoring.
They also asked that he be authorized to depart his residence for healthcare, saying he required frequent medical attention for pulmonary infections and other health problems.
Details of Guilty Verdict
He was determined responsible of heading a plot aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the presidential race to his left-wing rival, President Lula.
High Court judges said that he knew of a plot which included plans to assassinate Lula 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 the former president's case.
The conspiracy was stopped because it didn't receive the backing of the armed forces officials. His successor was inaugurated without issue on 1 January 2023.
But a week later, on January 8th, thousands of his backers invaded and destroyed government buildings in the national capital, the capital city.
The security forces stepped in and around fifteen hundred individuals were arrested.
The magistrates found that the demonstrators had been provoked by the former president whose plan, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, restore order and bring him back to power.
At the period, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the over 27-year sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also banned from running for public office until twenty-sixty - eight years later after the conclusion of his imprisonment.
The ex-leader called the court case a targeted investigation" and said it was designed to prevent him competing in the 2026 national vote.