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Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities found he posed a concrete flight risk while under home confinement.

The ex-president was sentenced of orchestrating a government overthrow in last fall and given more than over two decades in incarceration, but he remained under house arrest pending appeals.

Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a preventative measure after fresh information emerged.

This involved seeking to disable his ankle monitor and a call for a demonstration that could facilitate a chance to flee".

Judicial Records Show Escape Concerns

In a paperwork permitting the custody, Justice Moraes said information from the unit overseeing his home detention suggested the one-time head of state's aim to disable the surveillance device to ensure success in his getaway".

This, it said, would be "facilitated by the disorder caused by the gathering called by his child.

His child, his son Flávio, who serves as a congressional representative, called for a meeting of his supporters near the former president's residence to take place on Saturday evening.

His son wrote on online platforms on last Friday: Will you battle for your nation, or observe everything from your smartphone there on your couch? I urge you to fight with us."

He said the vigil would be so supporters could "pray for his well-being and for the restoration of democratic rule in our country."

Foreign Shelter Risks

Part of the magistrate's ruling was the chance of the former president's "relocation to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the probes revealed a history of arranging to ask for protection through a diplomatic representation", a statement said.

The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the US embassy in the capital, Brazil's capital, is positioned around 13km from the former president's residence.

Global Responses

His judicial problems have drawn the ire of fellow right-wing populist US President Trump, leading him to implement a half-rate duty on Brazilian product imports.

The former president is being detained in a Federal Police station in the capital and will undergo a custody hearing on the following day.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on last Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under domestic detention, with tracking devices.

They also requested that the former president be authorized to exit his dwelling for medical treatment, saying he required regular treatment for pulmonary infections and other health problems.

Background on Conviction

Bolsonaro was found guilty of leading a plot aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the presidential race to his left-wing rival, Lula.

Supreme Court justices said that he had knowledge of a scheme which encompassed plans to assassinate Lula and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to arrest and execute Alexandre de Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been presiding over Bolsonaro's trial.

The scheme was stopped because it couldn't obtain the backing of the army and air force commanders. Lula was took office without issue on the first day of 2023.

But a following week, on the eighth of January, many his followers stormed and vandalised government buildings in the federal district, Brasília.

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

The judges found that the demonstrators had been encouraged by the former president whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to step in, reestablish control and reinstate his authority.

At the time, the legal team called the decades-long sentence extremely harsh.

He was also barred from running for public office until the year 2060 - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.

The one-time head of state called the court case a "witch hunt and said it was aimed at blocking him running in the 2026 presidential election.