🔗 Share this article

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

The one-time leader was sentenced of orchestrating a armed takeover in September and given more than a 27-year term in incarceration, but he was staying under home detention pending appeals.

High Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes said the move to detain the 70-year-old politician was a safety action after "new facts" came to light.

This involved trying to remove his tracking device and a invitation to a demonstration that could enable a potential flight.

Court Filing Details Escape Concerns

In a paperwork permitting the arrest, the magistrate said data from the facility tracking Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the one-time head of state's plan to remove the tracking monitor to secure accomplishment in his getaway".

This, it said, would be made easier by the disorder caused by the protest called by his offspring.

His child, his son Flávio, who serves as a legislator, called for a assembly of his supporters near Bolsonaro's home to take place on Saturday evening.

His son wrote on online platforms on last Friday: Will you battle for your homeland, or see it all from your mobile device there on your settee? I invite you to fight with us."

He said the vigil would be so supporters could offer prayers for his well-being and for the reestablishment of democratic governance in our land."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of Justice Moraes's determination was the possibility of the former president's move to foreign missions near the residence, considering that the inquiries revealed a background of planning to ask for protection through a embassy office", a declaration said.

The judicial paperwork highlights that the US embassy in the federal district, the capital city, is positioned around 13km from the former president's residence.

Global Responses

Bolsonaro's legal woes have provoked anger from fellow right-wing populist United States President Donald Trump, prompting him to enact a fifty percent tax on imports of Brazilian goods.

The former president is being held in a federal law enforcement building in Brasilia and will experience a imprisonment assessment on Sunday.

Recent Judicial Appeals

It was only on last Friday that the his legal team asked the Supreme Court to allow him to serve his whole jail sentence under domestic detention, with digital surveillance.

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

Context of Sentencing

He was convicted of leading a conspiracy aimed at maintaining his control after he was defeated in the presidential race to his political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Supreme Court justices said that he knew of a scheme which included plans to kill Lula and his running partner, Geraldo Alckmin, and to detain and kill the presiding judge - the High Court judge who has been presiding over Bolsonaro's trial.

The conspiracy was prevented because it failed to get the endorsement of the military leaders. His successor was took office without incident on 1 January 2023.

But a week later, on January 8th, many Bolsonaro supporters invaded and destroyed government buildings in the federal district, the capital city.

The law enforcement took action and around 1,500 people were arrested.

The justices found that the demonstrators had been provoked by the former president whose scheme, they said, was for the national armed forces to intervene, restore order and reinstate his authority.

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

He was also banned from running for public office until the year 2060 - a decade minus two years after the end of his sentence.

The ex-leader called the trial a political persecution and said it was aimed at blocking him competing in the 2026 presidential election.