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Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities found he posed a definite escape threat while under domestic detention.

The one-time leader was found guilty of planning a military coup in September and given more than a 27-year term in jail, but he was staying under home detention pending legal challenges.

Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a preventative measure after recent developments were revealed.

This encompassed attempting to break his ankle monitor and a summons to a supporters' gathering that could enable a potential flight.

Court Filing Details Escape Risks

In a paperwork permitting the arrest, Justice Moraes said data from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the ex-president's plan to remove the electronic ankle bracelet to ensure success in his escape.

This, it said, would be made easier by the disorder caused by the demonstration called by his child.

His child, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a senator, called for a gathering of his followers near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.

The senator wrote on social media on last Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your country, or see it all from your mobile device there on your sofa? I call on you to fight with us."

He said the vigil would be so backers could seek divine intervention for his well-being and for the return of democracy in our land."

Diplomatic Refuge Fears

Part of the magistrate's determination was the chance of Bolsonaro's "relocation to embassies near the residence, considering that the investigations revealed a background of arranging to ask for protection through a embassy office", a announcement said.

The court filing underscores that the American diplomatic mission in the national capital, Brazil's capital, is situated around 13km from the former president's residence.

International Reactions

The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow populist conservative United States President Donald Trump, causing him to implement a half-rate duty on imports of Brazilian goods.

Bolsonaro is being detained in a federal law enforcement building in Brasilia and will have a imprisonment assessment on the following day.

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on the previous day that the former president's lawyers asked the Top Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under domestic detention, with digital surveillance.

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

Context of Sentencing

The former president was found guilty of heading a plot aimed at keeping him in power after he failed to win the presidential race to his ideological adversary, Lula.

Top judicial officials said that he had knowledge of a scheme which included plans to murder the current president and his vice-presidential running mate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to imprison and murder Alexandre de Moraes - the High Court judge who has been managing his judicial proceedings.

The plot was stopped because it failed to get the backing of the armed forces officials. Lula was took office without problem on the first day of 2023.

But a week later, on the eighth of January, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised official structures in the capital, Brazil's capital.

The police took action and around approximately 1,500 persons were taken into custody.

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

At the time, his attorneys called the over 27-year sentence unreasonably severe".

He was also banned from campaigning for office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the completion of his term.

The one-time head of state called the court case a "witch hunt and said it was intended to stop him participating in the 2026 national vote.