🔗 Share this article

The former Brazilian leader has been arrested after authorities concluded he posed a serious risk of fleeing while under domestic detention.

The ex-president was found guilty of planning a military coup in last fall and given more than 27 years in jail, but he continued under confinement pending appeals.

High Court Judge the presiding justice said the move to detain the septuagenarian politician was a preventative measure after "new facts" were revealed.

This included seeking to disable his tracking device and a summons to a demonstration that could enable a potential flight.

Legal Document Reveals Escape Concerns

In a paperwork permitting the detention, Justice Moraes said information from the centre monitoring Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the ex-president's "intention to break the tracking monitor to guarantee victory in his flight.

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

His child, Flávio, who works as a legislator, called for a assembly of his backers near his father's house to take place on Saturday night.

The senator wrote on digital networks on the previous day: Do you plan to struggle for your homeland, or watch it all from your smartphone there on your couch? I urge you to battle with us."

He said the gathering would be so backers could seek divine intervention for his well-being and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our country."

Foreign Shelter Risks

Part of Justice Moraes's decision was the potential of the former president's move to embassies near the home, considering that the investigations revealed a record of planning to seek refuge through a embassy office", a statement said.

The legal document underscores that the US embassy in the capital, the capital city, is positioned around 8 miles from Bolsonaro's home.

Global Responses

The former president's legal troubles have provoked anger from fellow conservative nationalist American leader President Trump, leading him to impose a 50% tariff on goods coming from Brazil.

He is being kept in a Federal Police station in the capital and will undergo a custody hearing on the next day.

Recent Legal Requests

It was only on Friday that the his legal team asked the Top Court to permit him to fulfill his full incarceration period under home confinement, with electronic monitoring.

They also petitioned that the former president be allowed to depart his residence for medical care, saying he needed regular treatment for lung conditions and other ailments.

Background on Conviction

Bolsonaro was convicted of orchestrating a scheme aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the 2022 election to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

High Court judges said that he had knowledge of a plot which encompassed plans to assassinate the current president and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to detain and kill Alexandre de Moraes - the top judicial official who has been managing the former president's case.

The scheme was thwarted because it didn't receive the endorsement of the military leaders. The current president was took office without incident on 1 January 2023.

But a following week, on the eighth of January, thousands of his backers invaded and destroyed public facilities in the capital, Brasília.

The security forces stepped in and around fifteen hundred individuals were taken into custody.

The judges found that the protesters had been encouraged by him whose scheme, they said, was for the national armed forces to intervene, restore order and return him to office.

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

He was also prohibited from campaigning for office until 2060 - a decade minus two years after the conclusion of his imprisonment.

The former president called the court case a political persecution and said it was designed to prevent him competing in the next presidential race.