🔗 Share this article

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

The one-time leader was found guilty of plotting a military coup in September and handed more than a 27-year term in incarceration, but he remained under home detention pending court reviews.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Justice Moraes said the move to detain the 70-year-old politician was a precautionary step after recent developments emerged.

This included seeking to disable his electronic bracelet and a summons to a supporters' gathering that could facilitate a possible escape.

Court Filing Details Escape Risks

In a paperwork permitting the detention, Justice Moraes said data from the centre monitoring Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the ex-president's aim to disable the tracking monitor to secure accomplishment in his getaway".

This, it said, would be made easier by the chaos caused by the demonstration called by his child.

His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, who works as a legislator, called for a assembly of his supporters near Bolsonaro's home to take place on the weekend.

His son wrote on digital networks on the previous day: Do you plan to struggle for your country, or watch it all from your phone there on your sofa? I call on you to fight with us."

He said the demonstration would be so backers could offer prayers for his health and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our nation."

Foreign Shelter Risks

Part of the judge's ruling was the potential of his transfer to foreign missions near the home, considering that the probes revealed a background of arranging to ask for protection through a embassy office", a announcement said.

The judicial paperwork underscores that the US embassy in the federal district, Brazil's capital, is positioned around 13km from Bolsonaro's home.

Global Responses

The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow conservative nationalist United States President Donald Trump, prompting him to implement a fifty percent tax on goods coming from Brazil.

Bolsonaro is being kept in a national police facility in Brasilia and will have a custody hearing on Sunday.

Latest Court Petitions

It was only on the previous day that the ex-leader's attorneys asked the Supreme Court to permit him to serve his whole jail sentence under home confinement, with digital surveillance.

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

Details of Guilty Verdict

The former president was convicted of heading a scheme aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the 2022 election to his left-wing rival, President Lula.

High Court judges said that he knew of a plan which included plans to assassinate Lula and his VP candidate, Alckmin, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the top judicial official who has been overseeing Bolsonaro's trial.

The scheme was prevented because it couldn't obtain the endorsement of the military leaders. The current president was sworn in without issue on 1 January 2023.

But a seven days after, on the eighth of January, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised official structures in the national capital, Brasília.

The security forces took action and around fifteen hundred individuals were detained.

The magistrates found that the protesters had been encouraged by him whose scheme, they said, was for the Brazilian military to intervene, reestablish control and bring him back to power.

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

He was also banned from seeking elected position until twenty-sixty - eight years later after the conclusion of his imprisonment.

The ex-leader called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was aimed at blocking him competing in the 2026 national vote.