🔗 Share this article

The former Brazilian leader has been taken into custody after authorities determined he posed a concrete flight risk while under domestic detention.

The former head of state was convicted of plotting a military coup in September and given more than over two decades in incarceration, but he remained under house arrest pending legal challenges.

Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the action to imprison the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after fresh information were revealed.

This encompassed seeking to disable his ankle monitor and a invitation to a public vigil that could enable a possible escape.

Judicial Records Show Escape Risks

In a paperwork permitting the arrest, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the unit overseeing the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's aim to disable the electronic ankle bracelet to guarantee victory in his getaway".

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

His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who serves as a senator, called for a assembly of his supporters near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday night.

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on online platforms on last Friday: "Are you going to fight for your country, or watch it all from your phone there on your sofa? I urge you to battle with us."

He said the vigil would be so supporters could "pray for his health and for the return of democracy in our nation."

Foreign Shelter Risks

Part of Justice Moraes's ruling was the potential of the former president's move to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the probes revealed a history of arranging to seek refuge through a consular facility", a declaration said.

The legal document underscores that the United States embassy in the federal district, Brasilia, is situated around approximately 13 kilometers from Bolsonaro's home.

Global Responses

The former president's legal troubles have drawn the ire of fellow populist conservative United States President President Trump, causing him to impose a 50% tariff on imports of Brazilian goods.

Bolsonaro is being held in a federal law enforcement building in Brazil's capital city and will undergo a imprisonment assessment on Sunday.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on Friday that the his legal team asked the High Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under domestic detention, with electronic monitoring.

They also petitioned that Bolsonaro be allowed to exit his dwelling for medical care, saying he required regular treatment for lung conditions and other illnesses.

Context of Sentencing

The former president was found guilty of orchestrating a plot aimed at maintaining his control after he failed to win the national vote to his ideological adversary, Lula.

Supreme Court justices said that he was aware of a plot which involved plans to murder the current president and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to arrest and execute Alexandre de Moraes - the High Court judge who has been overseeing the former president's case.

The conspiracy was stopped because it couldn't obtain the backing of the armed forces officials. Lula was sworn in without problem on the first day of 2023.

But a week later, on 8 January, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised public facilities in the federal district, Brazil's capital.

The security forces intervened and around 1,500 people were detained.

The justices found that the demonstrators had been incited by him whose strategy, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, bring back stability and return him to office.

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

He was also barred from seeking elected position until the year 2060 - eight years after the end of his sentence.

The one-time head of state called the court case a "witch hunt and said it was aimed at blocking him running in the next presidential race.