The former Brazilian president arrested after being deemed a risk of fleeing

Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities concluded he posed a concrete flight risk while under domestic detention.

The one-time leader was found guilty of planning a government overthrow in September and given more than 27 years in jail, but he continued under confinement pending legal challenges.

Top Judicial Official Justice Moraes said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a precautionary step after recent developments emerged.

This encompassed seeking to disable his tracking device and a summons to a demonstration that could facilitate a potential flight.

Court Filing Details Escape Risks

In a filing authorising the arrest, the judge said data from the facility tracking his home detention suggested the ex-president's aim to disable the tracking monitor to ensure success in his getaway".

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 legislator, called for a assembly of his backers near the former president's residence to take place on the weekend.

The senator wrote on online platforms on Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your nation, or see it all from your smartphone there on your sofa? I urge you to fight with us."

He said the gathering would be so followers could seek divine intervention for his health and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our country."

Diplomatic Refuge Fears

Part of the judge's decision was the potential of Bolsonaro's move to embassies near the home, considering that the inquiries revealed a history of organizing to seek refuge through a diplomatic representation", a declaration said.

The court filing emphasizes that the American diplomatic mission in the capital, Brazil's capital, is positioned around approximately 13 kilometers from the former president's residence.

Global Responses

His judicial problems have generated frustration from fellow right-wing populist United States President Trump, prompting him to implement a half-rate duty on imports of Brazilian goods.

Bolsonaro is being kept in a federal law enforcement building in Brasilia and will experience a imprisonment assessment on the next day.

Recent Legal Requests

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

They also requested that the former president be permitted to exit his dwelling for healthcare, saying he demanded frequent medical attention for pulmonary infections and other health problems.

Context of Sentencing

Bolsonaro was convicted of leading a plot aimed at maintaining his control after he failed to win the presidential race to his ideological adversary, Lula.

Supreme Court justices said that he was aware of a scheme which encompassed plans to kill Lula and his running partner, Geraldo Alckmin, and to arrest and execute Alexandre de Moraes - the top judicial official who has been overseeing the former president's case.

The plot was prevented because it didn't receive the support of the army and air force commanders. Lula was took office without incident on the first day of 2023.

But a seven days after, on the eighth of January, numerous his followers attacked and damaged government buildings in the capital, Brasília.

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

The justices found that the protesters had been incited by Bolsonaro whose plan, they said, was for the national armed forces to intervene, bring back stability and reinstate his authority.

At the moment, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence extremely harsh.

He was also banned from running for public office until twenty-sixty - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.

The ex-leader called the court case a targeted investigation" and said it was intended to stop him participating in the 2026 presidential election.