🔗 Share this article

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

The one-time leader was sentenced of orchestrating a government overthrow in September and handed more than 27 years in prison, but he remained under house arrest pending appeals.

Top Judicial Official the presiding justice said the move to detain the 70-year-old politician was a safety action after "new facts" came to light.

This involved seeking to disable his ankle monitor and a call for a demonstration that could "allow for a possible escape.

Judicial Records Show Flight Fears

In a paperwork permitting the arrest, the magistrate said intelligence from the unit overseeing Bolsonaro's house arrest suggested the ex-president's plan to remove the surveillance device to ensure success in his escape.

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

His son, his son Flávio, who serves as a congressional representative, called for a assembly of his supporters near his father's house to take place on the weekend.

His son wrote on digital networks on the previous day: Will you battle for your homeland, or observe everything from your phone there on your couch? I call on you to battle with us."

He said the vigil would be so backers could seek divine intervention for his health and for the return of democracy in our nation."

Embassy Asylum Concerns

Part of the magistrate's ruling was the chance of his "relocation to embassies near the dwelling, considering that the inquiries revealed a record of organizing to seek refuge through a diplomatic representation", a declaration said.

The judicial paperwork emphasizes that the United States embassy in the capital, Brasilia, is positioned around 13km from the former president's residence.

Worldwide Consequences

His judicial problems have provoked anger from fellow populist conservative US President Donald Trump, causing him to implement a 50% tariff on imports of Brazilian goods.

The former president is being detained in a federal law enforcement building in Brazil's capital city and will have a imprisonment assessment on Sunday.

Recent Judicial Appeals

It was only on Friday that the his legal team asked the Supreme Court to allow him to complete his entire prison term under house arrest, with tracking devices.

They also asked that Bolsonaro be allowed to depart his residence for medical care, saying he required ongoing care for lung conditions and other health problems.

Details of Guilty Verdict

Bolsonaro was convicted of heading a conspiracy aimed at retaining his authority after he lost the national vote to his left-wing rival, Lula.

Top judicial officials said that he had knowledge of a scheme which involved plans to murder his opponent and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to arrest and execute the presiding judge - the High Court judge who has been presiding over his judicial proceedings.

The conspiracy was thwarted because it didn't receive the support of the armed forces officials. The current president was took office without issue on the first day of 2023.

But a following week, on the eighth of January, numerous Bolsonaro supporters invaded and destroyed official structures in the capital, Brasília.

The police took action and around fifteen hundred individuals were taken into custody.

The justices found that the rioters had been encouraged by the former president whose plan, they said, was for the Brazilian military to take action, reestablish control and reinstate his authority.

At the moment, the legal team called the over 27-year sentence unreasonably severe".

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

The former president called the legal proceedings a political persecution and said it was intended to stop him competing in the next presidential race.