🔗 Share this article

Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities determined he posed a concrete flight risk while under domestic detention.

The one-time leader was sentenced of planning a armed takeover in September and sentenced more than 27 years in jail, but he continued under house arrest pending appeals.

High Court Judge Justice Moraes said the action to imprison the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" emerged.

This included seeking to disable his tracking device and a call for a supporters' gathering that could facilitate a chance to flee".

Judicial Records Show Flight Fears

In a filing authorising the custody, Justice Moraes said data from the facility tracking the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's aim to disable the surveillance device to ensure success in his escape.

This, it said, would be made easier by the confusion caused by the gathering called by his son.

His offspring, Flávio Bolsonaro, who holds office as a legislator, called for a meeting of his supporters near Bolsonaro's home to take place on the weekend.

His son wrote on digital networks on last 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 vigil would be so supporters could "pray for his well-being and for the restoration of democratic rule in our land."

Foreign Shelter Risks

Part of the judge's decision was the potential of his move to foreign missions near the home, considering that the investigations revealed a history of arranging to ask for protection through a embassy office", a statement said.

The court filing highlights that the US embassy in the capital, the capital city, is situated around approximately 13 kilometers from his dwelling.

Global Responses

His judicial problems have drawn the ire of fellow conservative nationalist US President Trump, causing him to enact a half-rate duty on Brazilian product imports.

Bolsonaro 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 his legal team asked the Supreme Court to permit him to serve his whole jail sentence under home confinement, with digital surveillance.

They also petitioned that he be authorized to exit his dwelling for healthcare, saying he needed ongoing care for respiratory ailments and other ailments.

Context of Sentencing

Bolsonaro was determined responsible of orchestrating a plot aimed at retaining his authority after he was defeated in the presidential race to his left-wing rival, President Lula.

Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a plan which involved plans to kill the current president and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the top judicial official who has been presiding over his judicial proceedings.

The plot was stopped because it didn't receive the support of the military leaders. The current president was took office without incident on the first day of 2023.

But a week later, on 8 January, numerous his backers invaded and destroyed government buildings in the capital, Brasília.

The law enforcement intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were arrested.

The magistrates found that the protesters had been incited by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, restore order and reinstate his authority.

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

He was also prohibited from running for public office until the year 2060 - a decade minus two years after the completion of his term.

The ex-leader called the trial a political persecution and said it was intended to stop him running in the 2026 national vote.