Bolsonaro taken into custody after being declared a flight risk
The former Brazilian leader has been arrested after authorities found he posed a definite escape threat while under domestic detention.
The one-time leader was convicted of orchestrating a government overthrow in last fall and given more than a 27-year term in prison, but he remained under home detention pending legal challenges.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice the presiding justice said the move to detain the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after recent developments were revealed.
This encompassed trying to remove his tracking device and a call for a supporters' gathering that could enable a potential flight.
Legal Document Reveals Flight Fears
In a paperwork permitting the custody, Justice Moraes said data from the centre monitoring his home detention suggested the ex-president's "intention to break the surveillance device to ensure success in his flight.
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the chaos caused by the protest called by his child.
His offspring, Flávio, who works as a congressional representative, called for a assembly of his supporters near Bolsonaro's home to take place on the weekend.
Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on digital networks on last Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your country, or see it all from your mobile device there on your couch? I call on you to struggle with us."
He said the gathering would be so supporters could "pray for his physical condition and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our country."
Foreign Shelter Risks
Part of the magistrate's decision was the chance of the former president's transfer to foreign missions near the home, considering that the investigations revealed a history of arranging to seek refuge through a embassy office", a declaration said.
The legal document emphasizes that the United States embassy in the national capital, Brasilia, is positioned around approximately 13 kilometers from Bolsonaro's home.
Global Responses
The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow right-wing populist American leader President Trump, leading him to implement a 50% tariff on Brazilian product imports.
The former president is being kept in a federal law enforcement building in Brazil's capital city and will undergo a custody hearing on the next day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to permit him to serve his whole jail sentence under domestic detention, with digital surveillance.
They also petitioned that the former president be permitted to exit his dwelling for medical treatment, saying he demanded ongoing care for pulmonary infections and other health problems.
Context of Sentencing
He was determined responsible of orchestrating a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after he was defeated in the national vote to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
High Court judges said that he had knowledge of a plan which included plans to murder his opponent and his vice-presidential running mate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the Supreme Court justice who has been presiding over Bolsonaro's trial.
The scheme was thwarted because it didn't receive the backing of the military leaders. The current president was inaugurated without incident on the first day of 2023.
But a week later, on January 8th, many his backers invaded and destroyed government buildings in the federal district, the capital city.
The police intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.
The magistrates found that the rioters had been encouraged by the former president whose plan, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, restore order and reinstate his authority.
At the moment, his attorneys called the over 27-year sentence "absurdly excessive.
He was also prohibited from seeking elected position until twenty-sixty - eight years after the completion of his term.
The ex-leader called the court case a political persecution and said it was aimed at blocking him participating in the next presidential race.