🔗 Share this article

Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested after authorities determined he posed a concrete flight risk while under house arrest.

The former head of state was sentenced of plotting a government overthrow in last fall and given more than over two decades in incarceration, but he remained under house arrest pending court reviews.

Top Judicial Official Alexandre de Moraes said the move to detain the 70-year-old politician was a preventative measure after fresh information emerged.

This encompassed trying to remove his ankle monitor and a summons to a supporters' gathering that could enable a chance to flee".

Judicial Records Show Flight Fears

In a paperwork permitting the arrest, Justice Moraes said intelligence from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's aim to disable the surveillance device to guarantee victory in his escape.

This, it said, would be assisted by the disorder caused by the gathering called by his offspring.

His offspring, his son Flávio, who serves as a congressional representative, called for a assembly of his followers near the former president's residence to take place on the weekend.

His son wrote on social media on Friday: "Are you going to fight for your country, or watch it all from your phone there on your sofa? I invite you to struggle with us."

He said the gathering would be so followers could "pray for his health and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our nation."

Diplomatic Refuge Fears

Part of the magistrate's determination was the potential of Bolsonaro's "relocation to foreign missions near the dwelling, considering that the investigations revealed a background of arranging to ask for protection through a embassy office", a statement said.

The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the American diplomatic mission in the national capital, Brasilia, is situated around approximately 13 kilometers from the former president's residence.

Global Responses

The former president's legal troubles have drawn the ire of fellow right-wing populist American leader Donald Trump, leading him to implement a half-rate duty on Brazilian product imports.

The former president is being kept in a Federal Police station in Brazil's capital city and will experience a imprisonment assessment on Sunday.

Recent Judicial Appeals

It was only on Friday that the his legal team asked the Supreme Court to permit him to serve his whole jail sentence under home confinement, with tracking devices.

They also asked that the former president be allowed to exit his dwelling for medical treatment, saying he demanded regular treatment for lung conditions and other illnesses.

Details of Guilty Verdict

He was found guilty of leading a conspiracy aimed at maintaining his control after he failed to win the presidential race to his ideological adversary, Lula.

High Court judges said that he was aware of a plot which involved plans to assassinate the current president and his vice-presidential running mate, Alckmin, and to detain and kill Alexandre de Moraes - the High Court judge who has been presiding over the former president's case.

The scheme was prevented because it couldn't obtain the support of the military leaders. The current president was sworn in without problem on the first day of 2023.

But a week later, on January 8th, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised official structures in the capital, the capital city.

The police stepped in and around 1,500 people were taken into custody.

The judges found that the protesters had been encouraged by him whose strategy, they said, was for the Brazilian military to step in, reestablish control and return him to office.

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

He was also banned from campaigning for office until the year 2060 - eight years after the end of his sentence.

The one-time head of state called the legal proceedings a "witch hunt and said it was intended to stop him competing in the next presidential race.