Bolsonaro taken into custody after being considered a flight risk

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

The ex-president was sentenced of orchestrating a government overthrow in last fall and handed more than 27 years in jail, but he remained under confinement pending court reviews.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Justice Moraes said the decision to arrest the septuagenarian politician was a preventative measure after "new facts" were revealed.

This encompassed seeking to disable his ankle monitor and a summons to a public vigil that could "allow for a potential flight.

Court Filing Details Flight Fears

In a document approving the detention, the magistrate said information from the unit overseeing his home detention suggested the former leader's aim to disable the tracking monitor to secure accomplishment in his flight.

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

His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who holds office as a legislator, called for a assembly of his followers near his father's house to take place on the weekend.

His son wrote on online platforms on last Friday: Will you battle for your country, or see it all from your smartphone there on your sofa? I call on you to battle with us."

He said the gathering would be so followers could seek divine intervention for his health and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."

Diplomatic Refuge Fears

Part of Justice Moraes's decision was the chance of his "relocation to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the inquiries revealed a record of organizing to ask for protection through a consular facility", a announcement said.

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

Worldwide Consequences

The former president's legal troubles have generated frustration from fellow populist conservative American leader Trump, leading him to impose a 50% tariff on imports of Brazilian goods.

The former president is being held in a Federal Police station in the capital and will undergo a detention review on Sunday.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on last Friday that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Top Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under house arrest, with electronic monitoring.

They also petitioned that Bolsonaro be authorized to depart his residence for medical care, saying he required regular treatment for respiratory ailments and other illnesses.

Background on Conviction

Bolsonaro was found guilty of heading a plot aimed at retaining his authority after he failed to win the 2022 election to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Top judicial officials said that he had knowledge of a plot which involved plans to assassinate his opponent and his running partner, his vice-presidential candidate, and to imprison and murder Alexandre de Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been presiding over the former president's case.

The scheme was thwarted because it didn't receive the endorsement of the armed forces officials. Lula was took office without problem on 1 January 2023.

But a week later, on 8 January, many Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised government buildings in the capital, Brasília.

The security forces stepped in and around fifteen hundred individuals were arrested.

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

At the moment, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the decades-long sentence "absurdly excessive.

He was also barred from campaigning for office until 2060 - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.

The ex-leader called the trial a "witch hunt and said it was aimed at blocking him competing in the 2026 presidential election.