🔗 Share this article

Bolsonaro has been detained after authorities found he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under home confinement.

The ex-president was found guilty of orchestrating a military coup in September and given more than 27 years in prison, but he continued under home detention pending legal challenges.

High Court Judge Justice Moraes said the action to imprison the elderly politician was a precautionary step after fresh information were revealed.

This encompassed attempting to break his ankle monitor and a invitation to a supporters' gathering that could enable a possible escape.

Judicial Records Show Flight Fears

In a filing authorising the arrest, the magistrate said intelligence from the unit overseeing the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's "intention to break the electronic ankle bracelet to secure accomplishment in his escape.

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

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

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on social media on last Friday: Will you battle for your homeland, or observe everything from your smartphone there on your couch? I call on you to battle with us."

He said the demonstration would be so backers could "pray for his physical condition and for the restoration of democratic rule in our land."

Diplomatic Refuge Fears

Part of Justice Moraes's ruling was the potential of the former president's transfer to diplomatic missions near the home, considering that the probes revealed a history of organizing to request asylum through a embassy office", a declaration said.

The court filing emphasizes that the US embassy in the federal district, the capital city, is located around 13km from the former president's residence.

Global Responses

Bolsonaro's legal woes have provoked anger from fellow right-wing populist US President President Trump, leading him to implement a fifty percent tax on imports of Brazilian goods.

The former president is being kept in a Federal Police station in Brazil's capital city and will have a imprisonment assessment on the following day.

Recent Judicial Appeals

It was only on last Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the High Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under home confinement, with digital surveillance.

They also requested that he be permitted to exit his dwelling for medical care, saying he needed regular treatment for respiratory ailments and other health problems.

Context of Sentencing

He was convicted of heading a scheme aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the presidential race to his ideological adversary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

High Court judges said that he had knowledge of a scheme which included plans to assassinate his opponent and his running partner, Alckmin, and to imprison and murder Alexandre de Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been presiding over Bolsonaro's trial.

The conspiracy was stopped because it didn't receive the backing of the military leaders. The current president was sworn in without issue on January 1st, 2023.

But a week later, on January 8th, numerous his backers stormed and vandalised government buildings in the national capital, Brazil's capital.

The law enforcement took action and around fifteen hundred individuals were arrested.

The justices found that the rioters had been incited by the former president whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to take action, bring back stability and bring him back to power.

At the period, his attorneys called the decades-long sentence unreasonably severe".

He was also barred from seeking elected position until twenty-sixty - eight years later after the end of his sentence.

The former president called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was designed to prevent him running in the 2026 national vote.