The former Brazilian president arrested after being deemed a escape threat

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Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under home confinement.

The ex-president was sentenced of orchestrating a military coup in last fall and given more than a 27-year term in jail, but he was staying under home detention pending appeals.

Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the move to detain the septuagenarian politician was a precautionary step after recent developments were revealed.

This included seeking to disable his ankle monitor and a invitation to a demonstration that could enable a chance to flee".

Judicial Records Show Flight Fears

In a paperwork permitting the custody, Justice Moraes said data from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's plan to remove the surveillance device to guarantee victory in his escape.

This, it said, would be assisted by the confusion caused by the demonstration called by his offspring.

His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a legislator, called for a assembly of his backers near his father's house to take place on the weekend.

The senator wrote on social media on Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your nation, or watch it all from your smartphone there on your settee? I invite you to struggle with us."

He said the gathering would be so backers could seek divine intervention for his physical condition and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our country."

Diplomatic Refuge Fears

Part of the magistrate's decision was the chance of his "relocation to embassies near the home, considering that the probes revealed a background of arranging to seek refuge through a embassy office", a announcement said.

The legal document highlights that the US embassy in the federal district, the capital city, is positioned around 13km from Bolsonaro's home.

International Reactions

The former president's legal troubles have generated frustration from fellow populist conservative American leader Trump, leading him to enact a half-rate duty on Brazilian product imports.

He is being detained in a Federal Police station in Brasilia and will have a imprisonment assessment on the next day.

Latest Court Petitions

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

They also requested that Bolsonaro be allowed to depart his residence for healthcare, saying he required frequent medical attention for pulmonary infections and other illnesses.

Context of Sentencing

Bolsonaro was convicted of leading a plot aimed at maintaining his control after he lost the 2022 election to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a plan which involved plans to assassinate his opponent and his running partner, his vice-presidential candidate, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the Supreme Court justice who has been managing Bolsonaro's trial.

The scheme was prevented because it couldn't obtain the backing of the armed forces officials. The current president was took office without problem on January 1st, 2023.

But a following week, on the eighth of January, thousands of his backers attacked and damaged public facilities in the national capital, the capital city.

The law enforcement stepped in and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.

The magistrates found that the rioters had been incited by him whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to step in, reestablish control and bring him back to power.

At the time, the legal team called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".

He was also barred from campaigning for office until the year 2060 - eight years after the end of his sentence.

The one-time head of state called the legal proceedings a targeted investigation" and said it was aimed at blocking him running in the 2026 national vote.

Mark Nichols
Mark Nichols

Lena Visser is a seasoned event planner with over a decade of experience orchestrating high-profile corporate and social events across Europe.