🔗 Share this article

Jair Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities found he posed a definite escape threat while under home confinement.

The one-time leader was convicted of planning a armed takeover in September and handed more than over two decades in incarceration, but he was staying under confinement pending court reviews.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice the presiding justice said the action to imprison the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after "new facts" were revealed.

This encompassed seeking to disable his tracking device and a call for a public vigil that could facilitate a potential flight.

Court Filing Details Escape Risks

In a filing authorising the arrest, the judge said information from the centre monitoring his home detention suggested the one-time head of state's "intention to break the surveillance device to guarantee victory in his escape.

This, it said, would be assisted by the chaos caused by the demonstration called by his son.

His offspring, Flávio Bolsonaro, who serves as a senator, called for a gathering of his backers near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday night.

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on social media on Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your country, or see it all from your mobile device there on your settee? I invite you to struggle with us."

He said the demonstration would be so supporters could seek divine intervention for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our land."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of the magistrate's determination was the potential of Bolsonaro's "relocation to diplomatic missions near the residence, considering that the probes revealed a background of planning to seek refuge through a embassy office", a declaration said.

The court filing emphasizes that the US embassy in the national capital, Brasilia, is positioned around 13km from the former president's residence.

International Reactions

The former president's legal troubles have drawn the ire of fellow right-wing populist US President Donald Trump, causing him to enact a 50% tariff on goods coming from Brazil.

He is being kept in a Federal Police station in Brazil's capital city and will experience a custody hearing on Sunday.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on last Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to allow him to complete his entire prison term under home confinement, with tracking devices.

They also petitioned that he be permitted to depart his residence for medical care, saying he required ongoing care for respiratory ailments and other health problems.

Details of Guilty Verdict

The former president was convicted of orchestrating a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after he failed to win the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, Lula.

Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a plan which involved plans to assassinate Lula and his running partner, Alckmin, and to imprison and murder the presiding judge - the Supreme Court justice who has been managing his judicial proceedings.

The plot was prevented because it couldn't obtain the backing of the army and air force commanders. The current president was inaugurated without issue on the first day of 2023.

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

The security forces intervened and around approximately 1,500 persons were taken into custody.

The justices found that the demonstrators had been encouraged by Bolsonaro whose scheme, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, restore order and bring him back to power.

At the moment, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the over 27-year sentence extremely harsh.

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

The one-time head of state called the trial a targeted investigation" and said it was designed to prevent him running in the next presidential race.