Bolsonaro taken into custody after being deemed a escape threat
Jair Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities concluded he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under home confinement.
The former head of state was convicted of orchestrating a armed takeover in last fall and given more than 27 years in incarceration, but he remained under confinement pending legal challenges.
High Court Judge the presiding justice said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a safety action after "new facts" emerged.
This included attempting to break his tracking device and a invitation to a supporters' gathering that could facilitate a possible escape.
Court Filing Details Escape Concerns
In a document approving the arrest, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the centre monitoring Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the former leader's "intention to break the tracking monitor to ensure success in his escape.
This, it said, would be "facilitated by the disorder caused by the protest called by his child.
His child, Flávio, who holds office as a legislator, called for a assembly of his backers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday night.
Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on online platforms on Friday: "Are you going to fight for your nation, or see it all from your smartphone there on your couch? I urge you to battle with us."
He said the demonstration would be so supporters could offer prayers for his well-being and for the return of democracy in our land."
Embassy Asylum Concerns
Part of the magistrate's ruling was the potential of the former president's "relocation to foreign missions near the residence, considering that the probes revealed a record of organizing to seek refuge through a embassy office", a announcement said.
The judicial paperwork underscores that the American diplomatic mission in the federal district, the capital city, is positioned around 13km from his dwelling.
International Reactions
The former president's legal troubles have generated frustration from fellow conservative nationalist US President Trump, leading him to implement a fifty percent tax on imports of Brazilian goods.
Bolsonaro is being held in a Federal Police station in Brasilia and will have a imprisonment assessment on the following day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on last Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest, with electronic monitoring.
They also requested that the former president be authorized to exit his dwelling for healthcare, saying he required regular treatment for lung conditions and other ailments.
Context of Sentencing
He was convicted of leading a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he was defeated in the presidential race to his political opponent, Lula.
Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a scheme which encompassed plans to murder Lula and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to imprison and murder the presiding judge - the top judicial official who has been presiding over his judicial proceedings.
The scheme was stopped because it failed to get the support of the army and air force commanders. The current president was inaugurated without problem on January 1st, 2023.
But a following week, on 8 January, numerous his backers stormed and vandalised government buildings in the capital, Brazil's capital.
The security forces took action and around approximately 1,500 persons were taken into custody.
The judges found that the rioters had been encouraged by the former president whose scheme, they said, was for the country's army to intervene, reestablish control and bring him back to power.
At the moment, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".
He was also banned from seeking elected position until 2060 - eight years after the end of his sentence.
The former president called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was aimed at blocking him competing in the next presidential race.