🔗 Share this article

Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities found he posed a concrete flight risk while under home confinement.

The ex-president was sentenced of orchestrating a armed takeover in last fall and given more than a 27-year term in incarceration, but he continued under house arrest pending court reviews.

Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the decision to arrest the elderly politician was a preventative measure after "new facts" came to light.

This encompassed trying to remove his ankle monitor and a invitation to a public vigil that could enable a chance to flee".

Court Filing Details Escape Risks

In a filing authorising the custody, the magistrate said information from the centre monitoring Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the ex-president's "intention to break the surveillance device to ensure success in his flight.

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

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

Flávio Bolsonaro wrote on digital networks on Friday: Do you plan to struggle for your nation, or see it all from your phone there on your sofa? I call on you to battle with us."

He said the vigil would be so followers could offer prayers for his well-being and for the restoration of democratic rule in our land."

Foreign Shelter Risks

Part of the judge's determination was the chance of his move to foreign missions near the residence, considering that the probes revealed a background of planning to seek refuge through a embassy office", a announcement said.

The court filing underscores that the American diplomatic mission in the capital, Brasilia, is situated around 13km from his dwelling.

Worldwide Consequences

The former president's legal troubles have generated frustration from fellow conservative nationalist US President Donald Trump, leading him to impose a 50% tariff on imports of Brazilian goods.

The former president is being held in a federal law enforcement building in the capital and will have a custody hearing on Sunday.

Recent Judicial Appeals

It was only on last Friday that the former president's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to allow him to fulfill his full incarceration period under house arrest, with electronic monitoring.

They also asked that the former president be authorized to depart his residence for healthcare, saying he required ongoing care for respiratory ailments and other ailments.

Context of Sentencing

He was convicted of leading a plot aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the national vote to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Top judicial officials said that he was aware of a plot which encompassed plans to murder the current president and his VP candidate, Alckmin, and to arrest and execute Justice Moraes - the Supreme Court justice who has been overseeing the former president's case.

The conspiracy was stopped because it didn't receive the endorsement of the army and air force commanders. Lula was took office without issue on January 1st, 2023.

But a following week, on 8 January, thousands of his followers stormed and vandalised public facilities in the national capital, Brazil's capital.

The law enforcement intervened and around approximately 1,500 persons were detained.

The magistrates found that the demonstrators had been incited by him whose strategy, they said, was for the national armed forces to intervene, restore order and reinstate his authority.

At the period, the legal team called the 27 years and three months sentence unreasonably severe".

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

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