🔗 Share this article

Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities concluded he posed a definite escape threat while under house arrest.

The one-time leader was convicted of plotting a armed takeover in the ninth month and given more than over two decades in jail, but he continued under house arrest pending legal challenges.

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

This included seeking to disable his electronic bracelet and a call for a public vigil that could "allow for a possible escape.

Judicial Records Show Escape Concerns

In a document approving the arrest, the magistrate said information from the unit overseeing his home detention suggested the one-time head of state's aim to disable the surveillance device to secure accomplishment in his flight.

This, it said, would be "facilitated by the confusion caused by the protest called by his child.

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

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on online platforms on Friday: Will you battle for your homeland, or see it all from your smartphone there on your couch? I invite you to battle with us."

He said the vigil would be so supporters could "pray for his health and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our land."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of the judge's decision was the possibility of the former president's "relocation to embassies near the residence, considering that the investigations revealed a background of organizing to ask for protection through a consular facility", a announcement said.

The legal document emphasizes that the US embassy in the capital, the capital city, is located around approximately 13 kilometers from the former president's residence.

International Reactions

The former president's legal troubles have generated frustration from fellow right-wing populist American leader Trump, prompting him to implement a 50% tariff on Brazilian product imports.

Bolsonaro is being held in a Federal Police station in Brasilia and will experience a custody hearing on the following day.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on last Friday that the his legal team asked the Top Court to authorize him to fulfill his full incarceration period under domestic detention, with tracking devices.

They also petitioned that he be permitted to exit his dwelling for medical care, saying he demanded regular treatment for respiratory ailments and other illnesses.

Context of Sentencing

The former president was determined responsible of leading a plot aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the national vote to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a scheme which involved plans to kill his opponent and his running partner, Geraldo Alckmin, and to imprison and murder Justice Moraes - the top judicial official who has been managing the former president's case.

The conspiracy was thwarted because it couldn't obtain the support of the military leaders. His successor was inaugurated without problem on the first day of 2023.

But a seven days after, on the eighth of January, many Bolsonaro supporters invaded and destroyed government buildings in the federal district, Brazil's capital.

The law enforcement stepped in and around 1,500 people were arrested.

The magistrates found that the rioters had been provoked by Bolsonaro whose plan, they said, was for the national armed forces to step in, bring back stability and reinstate his authority.

At the moment, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the over 27-year sentence unreasonably severe".

He was also barred from seeking elected position until twenty-sixty - eight years later after the conclusion of his imprisonment.

The former president called the court case a targeted investigation" and said it was designed to prevent him participating in the 2026 national vote.